Count Your Blessings

Last year I posted a thanksgiving article citing reasons for folks in HVAC/R to be thankful, myself in particular. If you are teaching HVAC/R, I know that you are experiencing record record enrollment at a time when your financial resources are dwindling. Although your job is difficult, you do have a job. A very important one at that. Your classes are filled with good men and women who do not have a job and they are looking to you for help. Both the economic situation and my reasons for being thankful in the face of adversity remain the same, so I am reposting last year's comments. 

At thanksgiving we should all take time to reflect on our blessings. For me this has been a great year filled with an abundance of blessings for which I am truly thankful. Unfortunately, many of my students have had setbacks in their life the past couple of years. I suspect many of your students have as well. We are seeing a wave of students who are preparing for a second or third career because their previous career was abruptly terminated. The plant they worked for closed, the building contractor they worked for has no projects, or the company they worked for has gone out of business. These are good people whose life has been turned upside down. It would be easy for them to concentrate on the past and what they have lost rather than what lies ahead. Dwelling on past misfortunes can be harmful to your health, adversely affect your present and threaten your future. I believe that one of the most important things we can do for these students is to keep them focused on their future. I have seen economic downturns and displaced workers before and I know the end game. These folks will merge their current skills, knowledge and experience with the knowledge and skills they will learn in their HVAC/R program to quickly become leaders in their new field. HVAC/R needs them.

Here is a list of a few things today’s air conditioning students can be thankful for.

• The need for heating, cooling, and refrigeration systems is only going to increase.
• They are starting a new career in a field that desperately needs skilled workers.
• There are still openings for skilled air conditioning technicians even during this economic downturn.
• Installation and repair of HVAC/R systems cannot be outsourced to foreign country.
• The wages earned will remain competitive because the work cannot be done by unskilled workers.
• They will enter the field with training for new refrigerants at a time when this knowledge is crucial.
• They will enter the field with training for new high efficiency systems at a crucial time as well.
• They are entering a field that is consciously increasing the level of professionalism and certification.
• They have experienced HVAC/R educators to help them make this career change.

I wish for all of you an abundance of blessings for the coming year.

CO Scare

I think that warnings about common hazards can become so commonplace that we don’t pay enough attention to them. We need something to wake us up. This week I received a wake up call when one of my students showed up to class explaining that his entire family had been suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. He had missed over a week of classes and had come by once to explain that everyone at his house was sick. His family physician suspected something was up after treating everyone in the family for symptoms that mimicked flu. The doctor confirmed that they were indeed all suffering from CO poisoning. A little investigation revealed that the vent for the furnace in the attic had never been connected. There was a vent pipe, but it ran to within a foot of the horizontal furnace and stopped. The furnace was changed when he purchased the house. He showed pictures of the furnace. It was a model that can be difficult to connect vent to because the vent comes through the front access panel. I imagine the installers did not have the right parts, left it for “later” and forgot about it. The HVAC/R contractor did not get a permit, so there was no county inspector to find the problem. The home inspector did not catch it, from the attic access the vent looks like it is connected. The student thought that he had combination smoke and CO alarms. Turns out, they were just smoke alarms. So an obvious safety hazard that is easily corrected went unnoticed until the weather turned cold. The good news is that nobody died, the house now has CO alarms, and the source of the problem was found and corrected. It is scary to think what the end result could have been if the problem had not been recognized or if the weather had stayed cold for a longer period of time.

More people are sickened or killed by carbon monoxide poisoning than any other type of poison. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that each year more than 500 people in the United States accidentally die from carbon monoxide.  An estimated 10,000 people in the U.S. are treated for CO poisoning in hospital emergency rooms annually.  It is believed that many more people suffering CO poisoning are misdiagnosed, or never seek medical care. This is because the symptoms of CO poisoning are very similar to influenza symptoms. One big difference is that influenza causes a fever and CO poisoning does not.

Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas that is highly poisonous. It is formed by the incomplete combustion of carbon based fuels, like natural gas, oil, coal, or wood.  Incomplete combustion can be caused by lack of oxygen, improper mixing of the fuel and oxygen, or too low a combustion temperature. A correctly adjusted gas or fuel oil flame should produce very low levels of CO. Ideally a correctly adjusted gas or oil flame should produce no CO, but realistically, most produce at least trace amounts. Solid fuels almost always produce large amounts of CO; that is why charcoal comes with a warning that it is not to be used inside.

HVAC/R technicians are in a position to help. We can make sure all combustion appliances in the home are burning correctly, insure there is enough combustion air for proper combustion and venting, and finally by making sure the vent system is adequate and working correctly.  For gas and oil furnaces also remember to inspect the heat exchanger for leaks. The heat exchanger separates the combustion products from the air circulating in the home. Although a defective or cracked heat exchanger can contribute to CO poisoning, more obvious problems are frequently to blame. Stopped vents, loose or leaky vents, and lack of combustion air are common causes of CO. While every technician should learn to look for conditions that can lead to problems, testing is required to verify that a system is operating at safe levels of CO and that there is no CO in the house. Every technician should have an accurate CO tester. Household alarms are not a substitute. While every house with gas or oil appliances certainly should have CO alarms, they are not a replacement for an accurate tool for diagnosis.  I highly recommend a seminar done by Bob Dwyer for COSA (Carbon Monoxide Safety Organization) Make sure and take advantage of the opportunity if you have a chance to attend one of his CO Safety Seminars.

There are many units in Fundamentals of HVAC/R to help explain how to achieve safe, efficient combustion for gas and oil furnaces, including

Unit 37 Gas Fired Heating Systems

Unit 38 Warm Air Furnaces

Unit 40 Gas Furnace Installation, Startup, Checkout, and Operation

Unit 41 Troubleshooting Gas Furnaces

Unit 42 Oil Fired Heating Systems

Unit 43 Oil Furnace and Boiler Service

Unit 44 Residential Oil Heating Installation

Unit 45 Troubleshooting Oil Heating Systems

There are many good web sites for more research on carbon monoxide poisoning. A few are listed below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/carbonmonoxide1.shtml

http://www.cosafety.org

Speed Up Your Service Calls

HVAC/R Technicians are under a lot of pressure to work quickly. The customer wants the problem fixed now. In the customer’s mind, the problem is fixed when the technician answers the door. If it were only that easy! The company also wants the technician to work quickly because time is money. The technician’s significant other wants the technician to work quickly and get home on time. Today people are so accustomed to downloading what they want, when they want it that they expect everything to come as easily and quickly. Life conspires to pressure the technician to repair HVAC/R equipment in the time it takes to download a movie. About the only way to actually accomplish this type of blitzkrieg service is to jump to conclusions and get lucky. It can you look brilliant to go right to the offending part on a hunch, replace it, and have the unit operating in minutes. But you can also look foolish if the unit quits operating before you get back to the shop. The customer now loses confidence in your ability. They can also feel cheated, suspecting that you did not check out the system thoroughly because you were there such a short time. From a practical standpoint, you have not saved any time if you have to return. In fact, your quickness has cost you time. I believe that being careful saves time in the long run and builds your reputation as well. Here are a few ideas on real time savings. Before you go to the service call, you should

Study! Your knowledge is the most powerful weapon in your troubleshooting arsenal. Read texts such as Fundamentals of HVAC/R, subscribe to service magazines such as the RSES Journal, enroll in classes at your local Technical College, join the local RSES chapter, and attend manufacturer’s service seminars. There are so many excellent educational opportunities for the HVAC/R industry that there really is no excuse to remain ignorant. Each hour you spend learning about your trade will save you many hours later on.

Build a good service library. You can’t keep an entire HVAC/R service library on your truck, but you can keep a few of your favorites. Don’t sell your HVAC/R tests – you can use them in the field. Service manuals and bulletins from equipment manufacturers are also very handy. If you can afford it, get a laptop with wifi internet. Most Companies now keep very complete service information on their web sites. 

Invest in quality tools. It always takes longer to do the job without the right tools. Don’t skimp on tools! Good quality tools that are made to perform the specific task at hand save you time. You can sometimes bang a motor shaft out of a blower wheel with a hammer and wood block, but it is so much faster and easier with a hub puller. And you will really cost yourself a lot of agravatino and time if you mushroom the shaft or warp the blower wheel.  

Next week I will discuss some tricks to speeding up the call after you arrive on the job.