New Products for a New Year

Dec. 30, 2020
All the big shows are either cancelled or virtual this year, but manufacturers continue to invest in new products. Here’s a few to put on your radar in 2021.

While the 2021 AHR Expo, originally scheduled to be held this month, is canceled, and the other big shows on the calendar—the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show and the International Builders Show—are going virtual, the parade of new products from manufacturers continues. We have compiled only a fraction of the new heating, cooling, plumbing and piping products that will grace distributor’s shelves this year.

Included in the collection that follows are a selection of those that AHR deemed the most innovative, worthy of the trade show’s highest honors: winners of the 2021 AHR Innovation Awards. Despite the cancellation of the live event, show management, co-sponsors ASHRAE and AHRI, and the awards panel of judges were adamant about acknowledging and honoring the 2021 award winners in 10 categories: building automation, cooling, green building, heating, indoor air quality, plumbing, refrigeration, software, tools and instruments, and ventilation.

 “Companies on the AHR Expo Show floor are listening to their stakeholders and developing new tools, products and services that make the industry more efficient, sustainable, smart, etc.," notes AHR Expo show manager Mark Stevens. "Conversation is key and learning from each other at all levels within the industry is what drives innovation from year to year.”

Submissions were collected over the summer and then reviewed by a panel of third-party judges made up of distinguished ASHRAE members. Entrants are evaluated based on overall innovative design, creativity of the product or service offered, application and potential market impact.

About the Author

Kelly L. Faloon | Freelance Writer/Editor

Kelly L. Faloon is a contributing editor and writer to ContractorContracting Business magazine and HPAC Engineering and principal of Faloon Editorial Services. The former editor of Plumbing & Mechanical magazine, Faloon has more than 26 years of experience in the plumbing and heating industry and more than 35 years in B2B publishing. She started a freelance writing and editing business in 2017, where she has a varied clientele.

Faloon spent 3 1/2 years at Supply House Times before joining the Plumbing & Mechanical staff in 2001. Previously, she spent nearly 10 years at CCH/Wolters Kluwer, a publishing firm specializing in business and tax law, where she wore many hats — proofreader, writer/editor for a daily tax publication, and Internal Revenue Code editor.

A native of Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula, Faloon is a journalism graduate of Michigan State University. You can reach her at [email protected].

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