I have a holiday story to tell that involves pushing people’s buttons and the value of knowledge.
Twas the day after Thanksgiving, and all through the store, frenzied elves were all searching for more. Their buggies were loaded in high rising stacks in hopes that their credit card limits weren't maxed. Their children were manic and running around, in hopes that ipods soon would be found. When up on the roof there arose such a clatter, the manager called me to see what was the matter. His nerves all a-jangle, reason passing away, he requested my services to salvage the day.” I am just sitting down to sup with my kin, first thing in the morning I will gladly begin.” “Please come now” he insisted and pleaded, “this is Black Friday, I’ll pay anything needed. “”I have no boards, no relays or switches. I can’t fix it if more parts are needed.” I quoted a price so round and stout that I thought surely he would wait the day out. When to my wondering ears he replied, “agreed – come quickly before customers fly.” I found a reset, red and protruding, I pushed it to see just what the unit was doing. The dead unit sprang into life and I saw on his face, a look of relief at all the sales saved. I checked to make sure it would run through the night, and promised to return to do it up right. I requested my fee for services rendered, when the manager balked and refused to surrender. “You can’t charge ALL THAT for pushing a button!” “Of course not,” I said, “pushing is free. Knowing which button to push demands the full fee!”

There is nothing wrong with charging for what you know. You have an investment in time and money collecting useful knowledge. It is reasonable and appropriate to charge for it. The customer should know up front what they will be paying and what they will be receiving for their payment.

Disclaimer: This is a fictional holiday tale. No buttons were pushed in the making of this story.

Furnace Ignition Sequence

One of the best ways to prepare for troubleshooting any piece of equipment is to learn it’s normal operating sequence. If you understand what is supposed to happen and the order in which nit is supposed to occur, you can narrow the probable causes by observing the unit operation. By carefully observing the operation of a gas furnace, you can often narrow the possible causes of trouble to just a few items based on how far into the sequence the furnace gets. Most furnaces today use many similar components. This includes hot surface igniters to light the burners, induced draft fans to pull the combustion gasses through the heat exchanger, and draft proving switches to insure the draft.

The first step is to energize the induced draft fan. This is the little fan on the front of the furnace, not the larger indoor blower. The induced draft fan runs for a minute or so to purge the combustion chamber. The draft safety switch should close after the induced draft blower starts. If it does not, the process stops there – often with the daft blower continuing to run indefinitely. If the draft switch senses a proper draft, it closes and the sequence continues.

Next, the hot surface igniter is energized. If it is working, you will see a bright glow.

After a warm up period of 30 seconds to a minute, the gas valve is energized. The gas should ignite when it flows over the hot surface igniter.

A flame rod must sense the presence of flames within a few seconds or the system will close the gas valve and start the process again. After several aborted attempts, the system will lock out and quit trying to ignite.

After the flames are ignited, the control turns off the hot surface igniter and waits for the furnace to warm up before operating the indoor blower.

When faced with a furnace that does not operate properly, pay attention to how far into the sequence it gets before the process stops. That can help you decide where to start your troubleshooting.

Would You Like Some R with your HVAC?

At the recent RSES National Conference, Rusty Walker of Hill-Phoenix noted that many of us in the HVACR business forget about the R – Refrigeration. He noted that during a time of high unemployment, refrigeration contractors cannot get enough skilled help. From his perspective, we spend most of our efforts training HVAC mechanics and too often leave off the R. I must confess that I am guilty as charged. My background is HVAC, my family owns and operates a local air conditioning company, and I have taught Air Conditioning Technology for 35 years. However, we have had many students enter the world of refrigeration and they have done well. 

There are some compelling reasons to consider a career in Commercial Refrigeration, including the ready availability of work and good pay. Every company that owns a refrigeration box, freezer, or ice machine is a potential customer; and these things need to work year round. Commercial refrigeration is undergoing something of a renaissance as companies look to innovative technologies for reducing their carbon footprint, energy use, and operating costs. Getting involved in Commercial Refrigeration now will put you among the first technicians trained for these new systems.

Training is required to become a refrigeration mechanic; it is not something you can just decide to do. This may be discouraging to someone without any training, but it is an advantage for people employed as refrigeration mechanics. Employers cannot simply replace you with someone who is not trained because those folks just cannot do the work, and training them takes time and money. An investment in education will pay off with a career that lasts a lifetime. However, this takes us back to the original problem: there are far too few places to get the training. One solution is to train for air conditioning. The physics and concepts that apply to air conditioning also apply to refrigeration. The basic vapor-compression refrigeration cycle and electrical circuitry are required for both fields. Understanding air conditioning puts you on the road to understanding refrigeration. So how about it. Would you like some R to go with your order of HVAC?

My Heat Pump is on Fire!

Every tech that works on heat pumps will eventually get a service call from a distressed customer who believes their heat pump is on fire because they saw smoke pouring out. Typically, they just happened to catch the end of a defrost cycle and saw steam rising out of the unit as the defrost cycle finishes. They can see that the outdoor fan is no longer turning, yet they can hear the compressor still running. They may also hear loud compressor noises or the refrigerant whoosh as the system reverses at the conclusion of the defrost cycle. If they are near a register inside, they will most likely notice that the air is not very warm. All of this panics the customer into believing something terrible is wrong with their system. Simply telling them that this is all normal may sound like you are not interested in their problem. Or worse, you are hoping they will forget about the problem long enough for the warranty to expire. You should check the unit to see that it operates normally in first stage heat, second stage heat, emergency heat, and defrost. Then, explain the purpose of the defrost cycle. You probably don’t have time to completely explain heat pumps and the defrost cycle, but you can explain that ice buildup occurs as the unit operates and that it must be removed to keep the system operating efficiently. Once they understand that the defrost cycle is intended to heat up the coils to remove frost and ice, it is easy to see why you would not want the fan running while trying to heat up the coils. Heating the outdoor coil also explains the “smoke,” which if course is really steam created as the coil heats up. Finally, the loud compressor and whoosh noises simply signal that the defrost cycle is over as the reversing valve shifts. Taking the time to thoroughly check their system shows the customer that you are indeed interested in their concerns. Taking the time to explain what is happening will help reassure them and save you time down the road. Next time they will know what they are seeing.