Home and Building HVAC Q&A.....

Due to some possible usefullness for TW members, thought I would start this thread, didn't know which forum, or if it would fly, so it went in 'off-topic' I guess.

I work in the Heat, Vent, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration trade specializing in Industrial and Commercial equipment. There are others in this trade that are members here, so please subscribe to this thread and help out some bretheren with me......

Many members like me only visit TW. There are many HVAC forums and resources out there. But on this thread, with the help of other HVAC tradespeople here on TW, some concerns and questions may be able to be answered.

Maybe a middle of the night fix could keep someone warm. Had this happen before, when we had 2 feet of snow around here that no one was used to. Caused some vent pipes to be covered on some roofs. I fixed 3 units that night from the warmth of my home......"shovel some snow off your vent on the roof silly!!"

Sometimes a residential unit could be troubleshot over the phone or computer, then you could lead the technician in the right direction, saving money and avoiding possible temptation by a contractor to mislead or inflate charges......

Ironically...my journeyman taught me two things coming into this trade.....not to work on refridgerators or automobiles....

I have charged automotive systems, added oil to the system, pulled vaccums on them, but that is the extent of my auto HVAC 'experience'.

I don't know everything, but I could try and help......

 

Thanks for starting this! I've had to teach myself about our oil burner, indirect water heater, and hot water baseboard heat since the Suburban Propane techs around here are next to useless. And they even tell me to buy parts elsewhere as I can get them cheaper that way....

 

I have 21 years experience in HVAC, mostly commerical.

 

Good deal joe....about double my years experience....I may pose questions to you.........hehe

 

i own a small hvac llc company(8 years experience) on the side besides being a electrician for the njtransit railroad.
i also have done autobody for the last 17 years so anyone needs help there also.

 

Your welcome PT......your input will be needed, oil burners are not my specialty.......

 

I'm no where near an expert, but I've learned a few things from replacing zone valves, water heater controller, and circulator pump when we moved in. And then furnace blower motor capacitor later on when the blower wouldn't kick on and the HEP sales guy thought it was the motor. I've learned from that experience to try the cheaper part first. ($25 cap vs. $100 motor)

I also have 3 progammable thermostats in my house and I've been trying to research better furnace controllers.

Themaster should chime in here! He and I have been going back n forth on this issue for a while.

 

When you say furnace controllers you mean thermostats, right? If so, I like the Honeywell's due to their reputation and reliability. I have two VisionPRO 8000 at both my homes. I love its ease of use, flexibility and its lighted touch screen. It has a real time clock and programmable filter change reminders. It automatically takes care of day-light-savings time changes. It also has many installer programmable functions and you can choose to lock out users or give them access to only temperature setting changes. When you put a temperature on hold, it asks you for how long and then self cancels which I think is awesome. The only useful feature is does not have is a variable dead-band which I would really like to have to save energy and prevent frequent start/stops. An adjustable dead-band should seriously extend the life span of the heating equipment and save more energy especially when the home is unoccupied.

 

cool deal Ben. this will definitely come in handy. i propose this become a sticky.

 

No, I mean an outside air reset or whatever it's called that you mentioned before.

X2!!

 

Right on mo, we just replaced 4 units at our church with dual fuel systems and added these stats, a little pricey, but very well worth the investment!