Cool Air, Hot Takes

Today, hosts Charlie Jelen and Dan Gentry are joined by an HVAC legend, Mick Schwedler. With more than 43 years at Trane and former Global ASHRAE President, Mick reflects on how the industry has evolved from floppy disks and early energy modeling to digital design, electrified heating, and systems-level innovation. He explains why giving engineers just a bit more time and budget leads to better, more efficient buildings, and why HVAC’s true impact goes far beyond comfort cooling. From supporting cold-chain vaccines to reducing emissions and protecting health, Mick shows how this industry improves lives and inspires the next generation of engineers. We also have: HVAC Headlines: the year HVAC “got run over by a reindeer,” Trane dives into liquid-to-chip cooling, and how to get your home winter-ready. Hot or Not: A special 1980s HVAC edition with Mick. Is thermal storage still hot? Would CHP ever rule the world? Debate ensues. Stat of the Day: Which countries rank highest for quality of life. We want your hot takes and questions! Email [email protected], drop a comment on YouTube or Spotify, or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Don’t forget to rate and follow too! Cool Air, Hot TakesTM is a Trane Commercial podcast exploring bold innovations, emerging trends, and game-changing tech in HVAC, energy, and the built environment. Learn more at trane.com/coolairhottakes. Follow for new episodes every two weeks and stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Today, Autodesk’s Director of Product Management, Ian Molloy, joins hosts Charlie Jelen and Dan Gentry to explore how digital design is transforming the built environment. We dig into where building information modelling (BIM) is heading, what truly defines a digital twin, and how Autodesk and Trane are closing the gap between modeling and load calculations. Ian also explains how prefab workflows are speeding up construction and how early design choices, from massing to HVAC systems, shape both operational and embodied carbon. Plus, we learn about the industry’s “more-on principle” and why right-sizing matters more than ever. We also have: HVAC Headlines: how yogurt-coated windows (yes, really) can lower the temperature of your home, and what’s been a tough year for residential shipments. Dan in The Factory: We send Dan on a mission to find out the wildest job story from Area Service Manager, Bryon Wilfong.Stat of the Day: The nation's priciest college tuition. We want your hot takes and questions! Email [email protected], drop a comment on YouTube or Spotify, or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Don’t forget to rate and follow too! Cool Air, Hot Takes ™  is a Trane Commercial podcast exploring bold innovations, emerging trends, and game-changing tech in HVAC, energy, and the built environment. Follow for new episodes every two weeks and stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

We’re back with another data-center-deep-dive - this time with Jason Espeseth, Principal Electrical Engineer at Geronimo Power. Together with hosts Charlie Jelen and Dan Gentry, Jason breaks down the rise of “bring your own power” data centers and explains how pairing wind, batteries, and firming gas near-site can dramatically reduce interconnection timelines and avoid passing grid costs to ratepayers. We also talk gen-ties, utility feeds for stability, and how some data centers could be powered by up to 70% renewable energy.We also have:HVAC Headlines: The first U.S. sodium-ion grid battery and what it means - could this reshape energy storage?Hot or Not: Producer Elena asks Charlie and Dan: are microgrids the future of data centers? And are data centers the new monuments of our time?Stat of the Day: Which country uses the most energy? (Spoiler: not who you think.)We want your hot takes and questions! Email [email protected], drop a comment on YouTube or Spotify, or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Don’t forget to rate and follow too!Cool Air, Hot Takes is a Trane Commercial podcast exploring bold innovations, emerging trends, and game-changing tech in HVAC, energy, and the built environment.Follow for new episodes every two weeks and stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

We’re back! And we’ve gone big for the first episode of season 3! Today, Ali Heydari, Director of Data Center Cooling and Infrastructure at NVIDIA, joins hosts Charlie Jelen and Dan Gentry to unpack how AI “factories” are reshaping data center design and why Ali thinks the AI revolution is the biggest change to the our lives since the industrial revolution. Ali explains why geometry (not thermodynamics) pushed the move from air to liquid, why NVIDIA standardized on PG25 for direct-to-chip cooling, and how digital twins in Nvidia’s Omniverse help right-size everything from chillers to dry coolers. We also dig into the tradeoffs between higher loop temps and rack density, and why cross-industry collaboration matters more than ever.We also have:HVAC Headlines: Why Legionella is a serious risk of poorly maintained HVAC equipment and how to avoid it, plus, why prices are soaring in the country’s largest grid region.Stat of the Day: Can you guess which states lost the most power in 2024?We want your hot takes and questions! Email [email protected], drop a comment on YouTube or Spotify, or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Don’t forget to rate and follow too!Cool Air, Hot Takes is a Trane Commercial podcast exploring bold innovations, emerging trends, and game-changing tech in HVAC, energy, and the built environment.Follow for new episodes every two weeks and stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Today on Cool Air, Hot Takes, hosts Charlie Jelen and Dan Gentry sit down with Mike Fierro, Supply Chain Products Manager at SourceBlue (Turner Construction), to unpack how the biggest projects actually get done. From pre-purchasing chillers and generators, to designing around lead times, Mike explains what changed post-COVID, why data centers are rewriting the playbook, and how a hyperscale job went from PO to units on the factory floor in days. Plus his hot take: that the U.S. tried to electrify too fast… do you agree?We’ve also got:HVAC Headlines: Tucson’s “Beast” plant at Davis-Monthon Air Force Base and what might come after R-454B/R-32.Dan Inside the Factory: A walkthrough at Trane’s La Crosse lab and a sneak peak at some of the centrifugal chillers. Stat of the Day: Where AIs get their information, and it’s not what you’d expect. This is the last episode of season 2! Thanks for riding along on this journey with us. Season 3 will be dropping in a few weeks.Until then, we still want your hot takes and questions! Emails [email protected], drop a comment on Youtube or Spotify, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Don’t forget to rate and follow too!Cool Air, Hot Takes is a Trane Commercial podcast exploring bold innovations, emerging trends and game-changing technology in HVAC and energy management. Follow for new episodes and stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts.