Electrification, CDUs, Data Centers: The Hottest Takeaways from AHR 2026

About this episode

Hosts Charlie Jelen and Dan Gentry share their insights from AHR 2026, discussing electrification, data centers, and industry challenges with various guests.

Season 4 is here! Hosts Charlie Jelen and Dan Gentry are back in the studio, fresh off the floor at AHR 2026 in Las Vegas, where the Cool Air, Hot Takes™ booth was open for business, t-shirts were flying, and the industry had lots to say. This week, Charlie and Dan break down their hot takeaways from the expo — from the CDU arms race taking over every corner of the exhibit hall, to a surprising surge in electrification energy that nobody quite saw coming. Live from the AHR Expo floor, we hear from: Allison Clements, Design Engineers: A hot take on the gap between elegant design and real-world operability and why your maintenance guy needs to be in the room. Ray Reiling, Trade Water: Why end-of-life refrigerant is everybody's problem and almost nobody's responsibility, and what you can do about it. David & Conrad Bishop, Twin Bishop Strategies: How the service industry is about to get hit hard by the scale of data center growth and why working smarter isn't optional anymore. Spencer Ingaldson, Darcy Solutions: Groundwater-enabled geothermal that delivers 50x the capacity of a traditional well. Yes, really. We want your hot takes and questions! Email coolair.hottakes@trane.com…

People in this episode

Hosts: Charlie Jelen, Dan Gentry

Guests: Allison Clements, Ray Reiling, David Bishop, Conrad Bishop, Spencer Ingaldson

Topics covered

• electrification
• data centers
• AHR Expo
• HVAC innovations
• sustainability
• refrigerants

Keywords

• electrification
• data centers
• AHR Expo
• HVAC
• refrigerants
• sustainability
• geothermal

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Design Engineers, Trade Water, Twin Bishop Strategies, Darcy Solutions

Places: Las Vegas

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