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Thermal Balance Point vs. Economic Balance Point
A Field Guide to Conductors for HVAC Techs
3 Bad Techs Who Don’t Know It
Three Steps to Deliver a Trades Education Talk
HVAC Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future
Upgrading Time & Temperature Defrost with Demand Defrost for Heat Pumps
Coil Temp Sensors: Thermostats vs. Thermistors
Cabinet Leaks in Air Handlers & Fan Coils
Planning and Installing Condensate Drain Lines
The Vacuum Deep Dive: Microns, Moisture, and Molecular Science
Surge Protection for HVAC – Short #285
20 Years in Family Business from the Kalos Founders
Permanent Load Reduction As a Sales Driver – Short #284
Cold Climate Evacuation Livestream – Pandora’s Box
Troubleshooting Tips and Tricks w/ Let’s Be Techs
Heat In….Heat Out: All About Heat Transfer w/ Joe Joe The HVAC Man – Short #281
Building Science at the Kitchen Table: Using Testing to Close the Sale
Hard Lessons w/ Roman, Tim D., Nathan O. and ELK
#hvac
Tech Tips:
The thermal balance point is the point at which a heat pump can move heat into the home at the same rate the home loses its heat. Above this point, the heat pump will not need any additional help to heat the home. But below it, the heat pump will need auxiliary heat with it […]
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HVAC work is never just “HVAC” work. One minute you're brazing copper, and the next you're troubleshooting a blown fuse in a disconnect or running a new whip to a condenser. Because our trade is so varied, you never know what you're going to find when you open a service panel or crawl into an […]
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First, let's state the obvious and clear the air a bit. The photo above is SUPER CHEESY! But this story is about three bad techs who don't know it, so a photo of three models clearly posing in clean clothes makes as good a proxy for a bad tech as anything else. First off, I'm not […]
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This article detailing the three steps to deliver a trades education talk was written by David Richardson from NCI. David is an excellent educator with lots of public speaking experience under his belt, and he has shared some great tips to help people share their valuable trade knowledge. If you have any questions for him […]
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There have been many adaptations of A Christmas Carol over the years, but it all started with a novella written by Charles Dickens in the 1840s. It was early in the Victorian Era, fresh off the heels of the Industrial Revolution. The British were reflecting on past Christmas traditions, like caroling, and exploring new ones […]
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Since heat pumps work by extracting heat from the outdoors to bring it inside, the outdoor coil will almost surely freeze up. To mitigate the freezing, heat pumps enter a defrost cycle in which they run in cooling mode to send hot, high-pressure refrigerant back through the outdoor coil and melt the ice. While the […]
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‘Tis heating season once again. It’s getting colder outside, and the heat pumps are starting to frost up outdoors. The defrost cycle helps get rid of the frost, and there are a few different ways we can do that; the methods themselves may differ between systems (time & temperature vs. demand defrost), as may the […]
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When we think of air leakage, a few common scenarios probably come to mind: disconnected ducts at connections, poorly sealed connections, and air leakage around vents are ones we’ve mentioned quite a bit in tech tips and videos over the years. However, there are a few that we haven’t really talked about, particularly for fan […]
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The condensate drain is the source of many a service call in Florida. A lot of the time, the problem is just a clogged drain; bacterial zoogloea (drain snot) loves humidity, and the all-aluminum coils don’t do us any favors. Other times, there are some clear drain design or installation flaws that present hazards to […]
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Videos:
Podcasts:
In this action-packed live stream episode of HVAC School, host Bryan is joined by Eric Kaiser, Ty Branaman, and Roman Baugh for a continuation of a deep-dive conversation on vacuum practices — picking up where a previous episode left off with Andrew Greaves and Jim Bergmann. The team sets out to both reinforce the […]
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This short podcast is from the Bry-X stage of the 7th Annual HVACR Training Symposium: Cheryl Klein’s “Surge Protection for HVAC.” Cheryl is with DITEK, a veteran-owned company based in Florida, and has extensive knowledge of whole-home surge protection and HVAC-specific surge protectors. HVAC systems may have their lifespans reduced by power surges (tens […]
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In this special live panel session recorded at the 7th Annual HVAC/R Training Symposium, the three founders of Kalos Services — Bryan Orr, his father Robert (Bob) Orr, and uncle Keith Huntington — sit down together to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary and answer questions from the audience and online attendees. Hosted by Bert, […]
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This short podcast episode is Jeremy Begley’s Bry-X session from the 7th Annual HVACR Training Symposium: “Permanent Load Reduction in HVAC – The Hidden Driver of Long-Term Sales.” Some common customer complaints we hear as HVAC contractors include high humidity, high electric bills, noise, and uncomfortable rooms. The typical HVAC solution is to change […]
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In this long-awaited live episode of HVAC School, host Bryan Orr reunites with three industry veterans — Jim Bergmann of measureQuick, Roman Baugh (Kalos), and Andrew Greaves of NAVAC — to tackle one of the most pressing and underaddressed challenges in modern HVAC: performing refrigerant recovery and system evacuation in extreme cold-weather conditions. The […]
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In this episode of the HVAC School Podcast, host Bryan sits down with Johnny, the creator behind the popular social media channel “Let’s Be Techs.” Johnny brings a wealth of hands-on experience to the table, having spent his first 13 years in residential HVAC before transitioning into commercial refrigeration. He shares his unconventional path […]
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Join Joey Henderson LIVE from the 7th Annual HVAC/R Training Symposium in Florida! This essential training breaks down the science of heat transfer into practical field techniques every technician needs. What You’ll Learn: Understanding sensible heat (dry bulb) vs latent heat (wet bulb) removal Why airflow matters Heat transfer diagnostics BEFORE pulling out gauges […]
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Recorded live at the 7th Annual HVACR Training Symposium, this episode brings together Roman from HVAC School and building science practitioner Brynn for a deep-dive conversation on one of the most pressing challenges in the HVAC industry: how contractors can use building science principles not just to solve problems, but to communicate value and […]
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Join industry veterans Tim De Stasio, Roman Baugh, Eric Kaiser, and Nathan Orr as they share their most memorable HVAC lessons learned the HARD WAY. This unfiltered conversation from the 7th Annual HVAC/R Training Symposium reveals the real stories behind costly errors, dangerous situations, and valuable HVAC training moments that shaped their careers. What […]
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