AAON SB Series Indoor Self-Contained Unit Is Winner in ACHR News 2012 Dealer Design Competition

TULSA, OK--(Marketwire - Jul 9, 2012) - AAON (NASDAQ: AAON) was recognized for excellence in product design in the 9^th annual Dealer Design Awards Program sponsored by The Air Conditioning Heating & Refrigeration News magazine. An independent panel of 29 contractors acted as judges in the contest that had 81 entries. The company's SB Series Indoor Self-Contained Unit was the Gold Award Winner in the HVAC Light Commercial Equipment category. The ACHR News is the leading trade magazine in the heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and refrigeration industries.

News Publisher Mike Murphy stated, "These awards give us a unique opportunity to recognize the outstanding research and development efforts that go into many of the products serving the HVACR industry and the awards issue gives our readers an opportunity to read about innovative installation and service solutions."

The AAON SB Series is unmatched in self-contained unit performance and serviceability. Compared with the single- or two-stage on/off compressors of competitive products, the SB Series provides more energy efficient 10-100% variable capacity scroll compressor cooling and heat pump heating. The SB Series has similar efficiencies to competitive products which include variable speed inverter driven compressors, however, variable capacity compressors are much simpler to maintain and control.

Compared with the on/off forward curved supply fans of competitive products, the SB Series provides more energy efficient, precise, and quieter airflow with variable-speed, ECM driven, direct-drive, backward curved, plenum fans. The SB Series also has the cooling and dehumidification capabilities to be specified with up to 100% outside air. Competitive products are designed only for cooling return air recirculated from the space. The SB Series double-wall, rigid polyurethane foam injected construction provides many benefits over the single wall fiberglass insulation construction of competitive products. These include resistance to damage, sound attenuation, reduced leakage, and a much higher R-6 thermal resistance.

"The recognition of the SB Series Indoor Self-Contained Unit in the 2012 Dealer Design Awards demonstrates our continuing commitment to designing and engineering innovative and high performance HVAC equipment," said Norm Asbjornson, President and CEO of AAON.

Winning entries in the Dealer Design Awards are featured in the July 9 2012 issue of The ACHR News, which is distributed nationally to over 33,000 HVACR contractors, wholesalers, and other industry professionals.

About AAON

AAON is engaged in the engineering, manufacturing, marketing and sale of air conditioning and heating equipment consisting of standard, semi-custom and custom rooftop units, chillers, boilers, air handling units, make-up air units, heat recovery units, condensing units and coils. Since the founding of AAON in 1988, AAON has maintained a commitment to design, develop, manufacture and deliver heating and cooling products to perform beyond all expectations and demonstrate the value of AAON to our customers. For more information, please visit www.aaon.com.