For professionals in the air-conditioning and refrigeration installation and repair trade, this book is an essential toolbox guide. Covers compressors, controls, components, motors, pipe, tube, valves and fittings, whole systems, and ozone-friendly refrigerants. Describes physics of vapor-compression and absorption cycles, and operation and installation of complete systems. Complete coverage of tubing: choosing, bending, and installing. Full description of all popular metering devices and electrical and electronic controls, heavily illustrated. 20 pages of troubleshooting for vapor-compression and ammonia systems, metering devices, oil-control systems, for air- and water-cooled condensers, motors and pumps. Standard ACR procedures include draining and adding oil, system startup and cleanup, detecting leaks, recovering refrigerant, drying, evacuating and charging a system, and periodic maintenance.

Voltas chases the overseas chill

Mumbai, Feb 5: Voltas Ltd, the Mumbai-based Rs 3,000-crore air-conditioning and engineering services company, is likely to bag a large overseas order that could be worth Rs 600-800 crore. The order from West Asia would be in the electro-mechanical segment and come before the end of the current fiscal, a source close to the development said. It is also learnt that the Tata group company is readying itself for bigger bets into special economic zone space for long-term contracts. M M Miyajiwala, executive vice president-finance, Voltas, said, "Bidding and bagging orders is a continuous process for us and I don't want comment anything on fresh orders at this stage."

He said that Voltas order book size has swelled to Rs3,500 crore, of which Rs2,700 crore are from overseas and Rs 800 crore from the domestic market.

Costa bravo! Spain is still a hot property

The weak dollar has made the US a tempting proposition, and every week seems to bring news of another overseas property hotspot. However, that old favourite, Spain, remains the most popular European destination for Brits moving abroad.

There are no restrictions on living and working for EU nationals. But you do need to get an NIE number - a tax number for foreigners in Spain - if you are going to buy a house or a car, open a bank account or work for a Spanish company.

Japan stocks fall over 2 pct, erasing week's gains

U.S. crude oil CLc1 jumped to an all-time high above $100 a barrel on Tuesday, with supply constraints helping to drive up the costs of other raw materials, though it had fallen below that level in Asian trade on Wednesday. 'Investors bid up the market earlier this week on expectations that U.S. stocks would do well once Wall Street returned from a holiday, but those hopes were betrayed,' said Yutaka Miura, chief technical analyst at Shinko Securities. 'Taking this along with the high oil prices and worries about the U.S. economy, investors decided it was a good time to lock in profits.' At 0429 GMT the benchmark Nikkei .N225 was down 2.4 percent at 13,430.06, its lowest since Feb 15. The broader TOPIX index was down 2.4 percent at 1,312.84.

Konica Minolta (4902.T: Quote, Profile, Research) plunged 7.3 percent to 1,365 yen after Credit Suisse cut its rating to 'neutral' from 'outperform' citing a weak office equipment market, competition in the LCD film market and the impact of a strong yen.

This is the second half of the story 'Rands and sense of greening your ...

Altruistic investments
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It's that time of the year again - when those of us licky enought to receive a 13th cheque find our inflated bank balances tempting us to spend.