Controls, Thermostats & Boards

Most controls and thermostats will have some sort of cycle rate per hour setting that kicks in to prevent over-cycling once the setpoint is reached. These cycle settings don't kick in until the system starts achieving setpoint, so don't worry if it will shut off if it's set to 70° in heat mode and it's […]

If you live in a dry climate, a humidistat is pretty straightforward; it just turns a humidifier on and off. That's about as simple as it gets. If you are in a humid climate, some people have taken to wiring in humidistats as dehumidistats to help control humidity when they are away. The first thing […]

Jesse Grandbois is a tech who reads the tech tips, and he wrote a few tips that he wanted to share on some gas furnace control basics. This tip is about how to use a fancy digital stat on a millivolt system. For those of you who don't know, a millivolt system uses a thermocouple/thermopile […]

As a technician, you most likely know some customers who still have an oldie thermostat (you know, those old mercury bulb things, like the round Honeywell CT87 and such). Keep in mind that those usually have an adjustable heat anticipator. If you’re newer in the field, you may not have seen or worked with those […]

This article was written by boiler technician Justin Skinner. Big thanks to Justin for being one of the rare techs who cares enough to take the time to write something like this. Thank you, Justin! Pressure switches are used in a variety of applications. Generally, they are a normally open switch that closes with either […]

The chart above is from a Carrier heat pump, and it lists some common accessories. I have heard this common pressure switch (last on the list) called a low-pressure switch (because it opens on fall in pressure) and a high-pressure switch (because it's in the liquid line), but RARELY do I hear it called its […]

If you do any larger commercial work, you've probably seen a DIN rail without knowing what it is called. It is simply a mounting standard that originated in Germany in the 80s and slowly worked its way over here. DIN rails can be used to mount terminal blocks, relays, starters, breakers, and just about anything […]

This article was written by my good buddy, Bill Frisbie. Bill is a service manager and crack technician at AirFx, a Trane dealer in lovely Inverness, Florida. Thanks, Bill! One of the most intimidating things in the field is to walk up to a piece of equipment that you have either never worked on or […]

  Dehumidification features have been common on residential systems ever since the introduction of variable speed blower motors. The system is set up so that the blower can produce less CFM per ton when the latent load (humidity) in the space is higher than the setpoint relative humidity. Slowing the blower increases moisture removal by […]