Obiaks Blog

A New Look For A Trusted Seal Of Approval

There's news for consumers who are shopping to upgrade their homes' heating and cooling systems. A well-known seal of approval has undergone a redesign.
After certifying the performance of more than 150,000,000 air conditioners, heat pumps and other heating and cooling components for homes and businesses for nearly 50 years, the Board of Directors of the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) has approved the redesign of its product performance certification seal.
The Institute's certification programs provide a sound engineering basis for rating the efficiency of HVACR equipment, allow product comparison that benefits manufacturers and consumers, and provide incentive to manufacturers to improve efficiency in order to gain market share.
Said William G. Sutton, ARI president, "The certification seal assures customers that the products they are buying--those used in homes, businesses, factories and all structures in between--will perform as claimed."
The Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute is the trade association representing manufacturers of more than 90 percent of North American-produced central air-conditioning and commercial refrigeration equipment.
It has been administering its industry-directed voluntary programs since 1959, when ARI published its first product directory. With only 26 participants, the directory was only 19 pages and had only 600 products listed.
Today, it publishes an on-line version of its directories at www.ari.org/cert. The current listing has over 200 participants and over 150,000 products listed.