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Common Causes of Compressor Failure
Training: Processes or Apprentices?
Sales: Techniques or Values?
Troubleshooting with DTD
Improving Humidity Control on the Cheap
Equivalent Length Merry-Go-Round
Plenum Takeoffs Best Practices
What is Enthalpy?
What are Dry and Wet Contacts?
EER in the Field – Short #231
Heat Pumps / Comfort and Electrification w/ Copeland
Efficiency and Production on Larger Projects
Q&A – Circuit Board Troubleshooting – Short #230
Are you using AI to Troubleshoot w/ Refrigeration Mentor
The New Sensi Equipment Interface – Short #229
The Buyout Epidemic – Manifesto
Standing Pilot – Short #228
History of Gas Furnaces – Redux
#hvac
Tech Tips:
This article was written by Don Gillis, the technical training manager at Chemours. Thanks, Don! Refrigerant compressors are essential components of air conditioning and refrigeration systems, as we all know. They work by compressing refrigerant vapor, which then flows through the system and changes state as pressure and temperature conditions rise and fall. Unfortunately, these […]
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โIt is only through the enforced standardization of methods, enforced adoption of the best implements and working conditions, and enforced cooperation that this faster work can be assured. And the duty of enforcing the adoption of standards and enforcing this cooperation rests with management alone.โ โFrederick Taylor โThe objective of education is not to fit […]
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โThe very substance of our existing which has made us leaders in technique, stands as a barrier to any thinking which might be able to comprehend technique from beyond its own dynamism.โ -George Grant The odd quote above takes some time to understand but has been rattling around in my brain for weeks now. George […]
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The temperature of the refrigerant in the evaporator coil can really help us with diagnostics, but we need to know the targets weโre aiming for if we want to get the most out of it as a troubleshooting tool. If we take the return air temperature and subtract 35 degrees from that number, we get […]
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This tech tip was submitted by Steve Rogers, the current president of The Energy Conservatory (TEC). Steve has been on the podcast several times in the past and is a valued contributor to HVAC School. Thanks, Steve! As summer approaches, HVAC technicians all over the US are preparing for those difficult conversations with occupants about […]
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I recently read a tech tip by Matt Bruner about using the Manual D process. In the article, he designed a duct system for a small job using a ducted mini-split. One thing I noticed about his design was that the supply and return duct velocity was fairly low compared to the arbitrary 900-feet-per-minute supply […]
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In my second year in HVAC, I went out with a senior technician to install a supply duct for a bathroom in a house. While he ran the duct, I cut a hole in the plenum and attached the collar. He crawled back across the attic and very nicely told me that people donโt typically […]
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Enthalpy is easy. It’s just a state function that depends only on the prevailing equilibrium state identified by the system’s internal energy, pressure, and volume. It is an extensive quantity. Simple. Like most things, the scientific definition is as clear as mud. In HVAC/R, we use enthalpy measurement to come up with the total heat […]
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I was talking about dry contacts with one of my techs, and he looked at me like I had three headsโand one of them was on fire. So, I figured it would be good to cover the difference between wet and dry contacts in a tech tip. Basically, “dry” contacts are switches with no shared […]
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Videos:
Podcasts:
๏ปฟ๏ปฟ In this short podcast episode, Bryan talks about EER (Energy Efficiency Ratio) and SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) and how to calculate EER in the field. EER and SEER are ratings that we often see on equipment (as are SEER2 and EER2) based on a ratio of an output to an input. Whereas coefficient […]
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๏ปฟ๏ปฟ In this informative episode, Josh Souders from Copeland joins Bryan to dive deep into heat pump technology, discussing everything from basic operations to advanced features in cold climate applications. The conversation begins with a fundamental explanation of how heat pumps work, describing them as essentially air conditioners with a reversing valve that allows them […]
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๏ปฟ๏ปฟ๏ปฟ In this podcast episode, Bryan, Jacob, and JD provide an in-depth look at a significant HVAC project that tested their team’s ability to adapt, learn, and improve. The discussion centers on a large-scale apartment building project that presented numerous challenges in project management, team dynamics, and installation processes. What began as a chaotic and […]
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๏ปฟ๏ปฟ In this short Q&A podcast episode, Bryan answers a listener-submitted question about circuit board troubleshooting: is there a quick way to learn how to check circuit boards, and if so, where are those resources? A circuit board is a bunch of components put together on a printed circuit board (PCB). There isn’t a lot […]
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๏ปฟ๏ปฟ๏ปฟ In this episode of the HVAC School Podcast, Trevor Matthews and Bryan dive deep into the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the refrigeration and HVAC industries. They explore how AI is not a new concept in their field, discussing how manufacturers like Copeland, Sporlan, and Danfoss have long incorporated AI-driven tools and […]
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๏ปฟ In this short episode of the HVAC School podcast, Bryan and Tom Lorenz from Copeland talk about the new Sensi equipment interface. This product has been in field trials for months and will be launching in February. It will also be featured at the 2025 AHR Expo in Orlando. You can learn more about […]
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๏ปฟ๏ปฟ In this episode of the HVAC School Podcast, Bryan shares his perspective on the growing trend of private equity buyouts and investments in the trades, particularly in home services businesses. He addresses the “buyout epidemic” with a balanced view, acknowledging the significant financial opportunities these deals present while expressing concerns about their long-term impact […]
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๏ปฟ๏ปฟ In this short podcast episode, Bryan talks about the standing pilot gas systems and the ignition strategy in gas-fired appliances. Standing pilots are very simple devices that are common in fuel logs, water heaters, and some pool heaters. These devices have a thermocouple or thermopile; in a thermocouple, two dissimilar metals are connected at […]
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๏ปฟ๏ปฟ๏ปฟ Jim takes us all the way through the history of furnaces, from the Stone Age when he was a child to modern modulating condensing types. The goal of a furnace is to move heat, so a furnace uses heat exchangers to facilitate heat transfer. Furnaces have primary and secondary air. The primary air goes […]
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