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HVAC  ·  Plumbing  ·  Electrical  ·  Solar & Storage  ·  Commercial Refrigeration  ·  Background signal

What to do about it: Ask your payroll provider this week, in writing, whether it is already capturing the FLSA premium half separately for 2026 and whether it will populate box 12 code TT — get the answer as a product commitment, not a support-chat reply. Have your bookkeeper pull a sample of field payroll from January, April and July and confirm the premium portion can be isolated for each; if it cannot, fix the pay codes now and backfill, because reconstruction gets worse every month. Confirm which crews are actually FLSA non-exempt, since foremen and salaried service managers may generate no qualified overtime at all. Tell field employees before year-end that box 12 will show a number and that changing withholding requires a new Form W-4 from them. Budget for the possibility of W-2c corrections in the first quarter.

One strong month does not make a year. Central air conditioners shipped 605,033 units in June, up 26.8%, but year to date they are up only 2.4% and gas furnaces are down 6.2% after a January that fell 29%. June looks like deferred replacement plus customers buying ahead of the August price increases. Staff and stock to the year-to-date rate, not to June. Source: Cooling Equipment Rebounds in Q2 as Heat Pumps Continue to Climb - ACHR News

Why it matters: Published August 11, 2026 at 91 FR 51975, it also sets minimum import prices of $21 a kilogram for polysilicon and $100 for ingots and wafers; cells at $0.22 a watt, modules at $0.38 and the 15% ad valorem duty on derivatives all take effect 12:01 a.m. eastern December 4, 2026. Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the EU are capped at 15% combined with column 1 duty; the UK at 10%. Fixed-term contracts signed before August 6 are exempt. Anza's August 5 median was 27.1 cents a watt for imported modules and 30 cents for domestic assembly on imported cells, so the floor implies 40% and 43% increases. This week: requote every module line for jobs energizing after early December, and check whether supply you hold sits under a pre-August 6 contract.

Why it matters: The bill passed the Assembly unanimously and the Senate 29-6, and Governor Newsom has until September 30, 2026 to sign or veto. It covers residential solar, home battery storage, heat pump HVAC, heat pump water heaters and new roofs, and still lets local governments require an in-person visit where safety warrants. A Bay Area analysis found crews wait two to six hours for an inspector on a review that takes about fifteen minutes, adding $600 to $1,000 per project, with more than $500 million in projected statewide savings over three years. Nineteen California jurisdictions already allow it, and Los Angeles County has run 20% to 40% of inspections remotely for seven years. This week: time your own inspection waits for a month so you can price the delay.

Why it matters: EPA's reconsidered Technology Transitions rule was finalized May 21, 2026, published May 26 and effective about July 27. In late June AHRI and the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy sued, arguing EPA failed AIM Act procedure, skipped required economic analysis and cut the minimum one-year lead time. HARDI, PHCC-National Association and ACCA filed a separate challenge: the extended deadlines conflict with the Act. On July 24, 2026 the Retail Litigation Center, FMI, the American Frozen Food Institute and the National Grocers Association moved to intervene for EPA, putting a compressed replacement at $1.7 million per average store, 22% of annual store net income. This week: state the GWP tier and assumed compliance date in writing on every system you quote.

Why it matters: EPA's July 28, 2026 notice of data availability analyzes HFC Allocation Program data for 2022 through 2025. In 2025 roughly 12% of the HFCs reported came from pre-2022 inventory — 26% on an exchange-value-equivalent basis. It also flags sizable year-to-year allowance transfers, some entities net recipients, and application-specific allowances unspent at year end. Its questions concern production and import behavior and how allowances should be issued from 2029, the next phasedown step; no proposed rule has issued. The cushion of pre-phasedown virgin stock that has kept R-410A available and affordable is measurably thinning. This week: price reclaimed refrigerant into service agreements and stop underwriting multi-year contracts on today's virgin R-410A price.

Wire moved on its own. Overall producer prices were flat in July 2026, but copper wire and cable climbed 8.3 percent in three months to the high of the run. Commerce has also proposed adding certain electric conductor cables to the Section 232 metals tariffs at 25 percent on metal content, with comments closed August 27 and no decision published. Price wire at order date, not bid date. Source: Producer Price Index by Commodity: Metals and Metal Products: Copper Wire and Cable (WPU10260314) - FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

What to do about it: You don't need a security program. You need multi-factor authentication on email and your accounting login, and one rule everybody follows: nobody changes bank details on the strength of an email or a call — you ring the number you already had on file and confirm. That covers most of it, and costs nothing. The part it doesn't — how the systems are set up — is the day job of our parent company, CyberSainya.

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