During the Annual Meeting of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), in Tampa FL last month, officials from Carrier Corp. announced the launch of the Toshiba-Carrier brand in North America.

Under this brand, Carrier will sell high efficiency duct-free inverter heat pumps, efficiency rated up to 23 SEER, via its distribution channel. The brand will also include Energy Star®-compliant and tax-credit eligible duct-free products.

Bob McDonough, president of Carrier Residential and Light Commercial Systems, and Akira Inoue, executive vice president of Toshiba-Carrier Corp., presented the product lines and distribution strategy at a press conference held during the ACCA event.

McDonough told attendees that with the addition of the Toshiba-Carrier brand to Carrier’s existing line of inverter and fixed speed duct-free products, the company now has the broadest capacity range of duct-free split products in North America.

He said that these new products became available to distributors in mid-March 2010 and consist of two families:

• a residential tax-credit eligible and Energy Star®-compliant inverter high wall system line ranges from .75 to 2 tons on size with efficiency ratings up to 23 SEER and 10 HSPF;
• light commercial “Super Digital” inverter under-ceiling, cassette, and high wall systems, ranging in size from 1.5 to 2 or 3.5 tons. These feature what sources say are the North American industry’s highest efficiencies among duct-free cassette and underceiling units, up to 21 SEER and 11.9 HSPF.

The Super Digital inverter line also features the longest refrigerant line lengths (245 ft.), and wired controllers for increased installation flexibility.

For more details surrounding the Toshiba-Carrier brand announcement, including an exclusive interview with Greg Alcorn, Carrier’s vice president of Light Commercial and Duct Free Sales, visit http://bit.ly/CBtoshibacarrier.
— Mike Weil