Tech Tips

This article was inspired by a podcast episode featuring Jeremy Smith. Jeremy is a refrigeration mechanic and has contributed a lot of good material to HVAC School. You can listen to that podcast on floating suction and head HERE. Those of you who drive your own vans are probably all too familiar with the following […]

Proving flame is an important part of the gas firing sequence. Without proof of flame, you risk dumping unspent gas into the heat exchanger, resulting in an explosion. There are many ways to “prove flame,” but we are focusing on the flame sensing rod (flame rectification) method here. Here are the facts: Flame sensing rods, […]

Over the past year, we have been adding 3D animations to our YouTube channel. It can be difficult to film everything we do in the field, so we've found 3D animations to be a helpful tool to show how parts work and how to do certain tasks. So far, we've uploaded nine 3D animations. This […]

This article was inspired by a recent short podcast episode covering a common issue among leaders, creatives, and technicians who try new things. You can listen to that podcast HERE. Maybe you’ve had a time in your life where you felt like a pretender. You’re really not as knowledgeable as people think, and they wouldn’t […]

This photo is of a blower door test we performed at my own house using a Retrotec blower door. You will notice the 15-passenger van outside the window, which is a dead giveaway. A blower door is used to measure the tightness of a building and is often discussed in terms of an ACH50 number. […]

“Haven’t you heard?! Air conditioning is a fundamental human right! If you don’t support my right to have air conditioning 24/7, then you’re an awful human being!” Okay, that impression of an entitled customer is a bit of an exaggeration, but it is true that customers have high expectations for service workers.  But can we […]

  “What do you want to be when you grow up?” “Where will you go to college?” Young people hear those questions all the time. Although we ask those questions in good faith, they also carry a burden of expectations.  By asking those questions, we imply that we expect the children to go to college […]

Whether you’re putting an A/C unit in a new home or doing a retrofit, installation jobs make up a pretty big chunk of residential HVAC work.  Installation can be hard work, and there’s a lot more to it than throwing a unit together and making sure it starts up. When you consider building design, ductwork, […]

Some careers, such as the more prolific positions in journalism and broadcasting, require lots of networking for you to land a job. A candidate’s appeal may depend almost entirely on who they’ve rubbed elbows with and which companies they’ve worked for. Luckily, HVAC/R jobs typically don’t require networking, especially not to that degree. However, that […]