Tech Tips

I once heard someone say, and have since repeated many times that BTU's ride on the back of Cubic Feet of Air or CFM. As I've learned more I've come to the conclusion that the weight or mass of the air passing over the evaporator coil is far more important to understand both in terms […]

Maintenance is not the sexiest part of our trade, and that’s ok. There really aren’t that many parts of our trade that are sexy, to be honest. Maybe maintenance is just the lowest on the totem pole. It can be easy to get into a routine of plowing through one after another, trying to check […]

So, here's the thing. When I was a kid, I got to go skiing in the Rockies a few times. Sounds great, right? Well, yeah, the skiing was fantastic, but the dry air at those higher elevations? the dryness and the lack of oxygen combined felt like breathing vapor beef jerky. Cut to me getting […]

Water is weird and water vapor is even weirder – before we dive down this rabbit hole lets define some terms To better understand the behavior of moisture in materials, we need to first define some essential terms and concepts: Relative Humidity (RH): The ratio of the amount of water vapor in the air to […]

Airflow, airflow, airflow… When we set up and commission comfort cooling and heating systems, we need to pay more attention to airflow before worrying about the fancy controls or the refrigerant circuit. One way to do that is by checking out Bill Spohn's Airflow 101 webinar on ESCO Group's learning network, which you can access […]

  How do HVAC surge protectors work? What sorts of electrical events do they protect HVAC systems from? Does every HVAC system need one? What is undervoltage protection? In this article, we will cover the basics of surge protection and help you determine the best use cases for the various options available in residential applications. […]

If you’ve been in this trade for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve run into situations that have left you scratching your head. If you’re lucky enough, you have the ability to call a senior tech, service manager, or company owner to bail you out of this situation. But have you ever run into […]

If you went to school and learned the “gas laws” early on, you probably thought it seemed LAME. Then, later, things like mass flow rates, airflow conversions, and compression ratios seemed HARD. Well… It's because HVAC is hard if you don't understand the concepts behind the gas laws, even if you never learn to do […]

It should be stated and restated that codes and code enforcement vary from location to location within the US. The IMC (International Mechanical Code) is one of the most widely utilized and referenced. The 2015 version of the IMC section 307 is what I will be referring to in this article. Condensate Disposal  The code […]