Everybody Wins!

This past week I had the pleasure of attending the Alabama Council of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Educators, or ACARE. The meeting was held at the Alabama Power training center, in Verbena, Alabama. The training room was full with approximately 50 HVACR instructors attending. Not only were there people from Alabama, but also Georgia, Mississippi, and Arkansas. ACARE is a great example of what can be accomplished through cooperation between industry and educators. The meeting could not have happened without the help of Joel Own and Alabama Power, but the instructors are taking a very active role in making everything happen. Instructors set the program and invited the speakers. They put together an impressive Alabama Power discussing the COVER approach to troubleshooting, Harold Nelson from Mingledorff’s  discussing compressor failures, a tech forum with manufacturer’s service reps, Jeff Marques of Air Engineers showing off the new Trane Hyperion air handler, Chris Mohalley of Genteq on ECM motors,  and me showing MyHVACLab. Harold and Chris both came fully loaded with handouts including books, powerpoint presentations, and manufacturer’s specifications. The handouts were worth the trip! The instructors received training in the latest technologies and Alabama Power lightened their load in the future, both literally and figuratively. Encouraging the development of HVACR Training programs in their state will produce more capable HVACR technicians for the future of Alabama. This translates into fewer problems with systems and energy saving savings. The state of Alabama wins two ways – they save on both education and energy costs. Suppliers such as Mingledorff’s make more money on customers with educated technicians because they don’t have to spend as much money on tech support and warranty. The instructors also are able to learn from and help each other. In times of economic stress, it really makes sense to help each other as much as possible because everybody wins.

The Dark Side of Cell Phones

Several months ago I wrote about the power of smart phones and how they can be used as a service tool. Properly used, phones can save mechanics a great deal of time. Unfortunately, they can also create problems. Many people that have grown up with cell phones are used to interacting with them continually, and that can be a problem in a service business. It is never appropriate to answer your phone when you are talking with a customer. It does not matter if it is voice or text, diverting your attention away from the person you are talking with is simply rude. If that person is a customer, the sin is compounded. Before you go to talk with a customer, turn your phone off. If you are accustomed to having your phone on all the time, it can be difficult to remember to turn it off before interacting with customers. I have been guilty myself. I once had my phone ring during a lecture that I was giving. I now try to get in the habit of checking my phone before I lecture. This advice also goes for talking with your coworkers and supervisors. A very talented student of mine lost his job because he was texting during a company meeting. The problem was not just that one incident, it was simply the straw that broke the camel’s back. Most places of business will expect your undivided attention when they are trying to talk to you. Similarly, customers expect your full attention. After all, they are actually paying for your attention. There can also be a safety aspect to phone use in a field that has many real physical dangers. You should focus your attention on whatever you are physically engaged in. Failure to do so can be downright dangerous. There are many articles on the web discussing cell phone etiquette. The Huffington Post has fifteen suggestions in an easy to digest list. But please finish your conversation with your boss before clicking on the link.

A Weighty Matter

One day while I was setting up for a lab I noticed that two of my scales did not agree. What was worse, the discrepancy was significant, enough to make a system charge way off. One of the advantages of using electronic charging scales is the confidence that you have put the correct amount of refrigerant in the system. If you don’t trust your scale, you lose that advantage.  I got a third scale to try and determine which was correct, but then I thought, how do I know ANY of these are right? Maybe I have two incorrect weights, not one. So I visited my friend Jimmy in the physics lab and asked for a weight. He gave me a 2 kilogram weight. I placed the 2 kilogram weight on the scale that I suspected of being off, and it weighed 2.3 kilograms. I then moved the weight to the scale that I thought was correct, and it read exactly 2 kilograms. This restored my confidence in my good scale and verified my suspicions about the bad scale. While this simple test does not replace NIST certification, it is a simple way to keep an eye on the accuracy of your digital scales and maintain your confidence in their readings. I do not believe most  digital charging scales can be calibrated in the field, you have to send them into the manufacturer. But you can periodically check their accuracy. You may be wondering why I chose a 2 kilogram weight. Well, physics teachers work in SI, not inch pounds. Jimmy does not have any 2 pound weights. Nearly all science today Is done in SI units, not English units. If your school has a physics lab, you might want to pay them a visit. They have lots of cool toys. After all, air conditioning is really just applied physics. 

Verify

How do you know if your students have actually learned the material? Most teachers verify the results using tests. You check the student’s knowledge against a standard. If the student falls short, you provide some remediation and then test again until they meet the standard. In education, you would not assume that someone has mastered a subject simply because they read a book that had all the material in it or attended all the right lectures. You verify that they have learned the material using written tests, lab exercises, or some combination of both. How do you know that an air conditioning system performs efficiently as designed by the manufacturer? For many people this has involved using design using tools like ACCA Manual J and D, and installation using skilled personnel. These two steps are certainly important, but they can be compared to reading the book and attending the lecture. Without testing to verify your results, you really cannot be sure that the system is performing correctly. After installation, system performance should be verified by testing crucial system operating characteristics. The 2010 ACCA Quality Installation Standard provides a good format for keeping track of all aspects of a quality installation that need verification. Verification is becoming a very big deal in our industry. Increasingly, energy codes, utility rebate programs, and government programs such as Energy Star are insisting on performance verification. It is no longer enough to install a high SEER unit, you must now test and seal the ductwork and test system performance against manufacturer specifications. You can download the ACCA Quality installation Standard from their website https://www.acca.org/industry/quality/quality-installation

We the People

Happy Birthday USA! We celebrate July 4^thas the start of our nation. More correctly, it was the official start of the rebellion with the Declaration of Independence. We would not be the United States of America until nine out of the 13 states had ratified the United States Constitution. The Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787. However, it stipulated that it had to be ratified by 9 of the 13 states before it would take effect. Some states were concerned that the Constitution did not specifically reserve powers not mentioned in the document for the states. The Bill of Rights was proposed as a solution. If these states would ratify the document, they were assured that the Bill of Rights would be quickly passed. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. On September 25, 1789, the first Congress of the United States adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution--the Bill of Rights--and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments were ratified in 1791.

The point of the brief history lesson is that the whole process from inception to the start of the first congress was based on representation. The US Constitution starts with the phrase “We the people…” Not we the chosen, we the wealthy, we the powerful, or even we the elect, but we the people. Elected representatives wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence. Elected representatives wrote and signed the Constitution. Elected representatives in all 13 colonies eventually ratified the Constitution. And finally, elected representatives voted on the Bill of Rights. All were elected representatives from their respective colonies. The men that signed these documents put their lives and fortunes in peril. Had they been captured by the British, they would have been tried for treason and hanged. Had they lost the revolutionary war, they would have lost all.

My challenge to all of you is to learn more about your country. A good place to start is at the links in the article above. And during the next election, learn about the candidates and issues and vote. To remain we the people, we the people have to participate.