Static Mistakes - Short #232

HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs

Bryan Orr

Training, Careers, Airconditioning, Self-improvement, Hvac, Business, Education, Refrigeration, Heating, Ac, Apprenticeship

4.8 • 985 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this short podcast episode, Bryan covers some common mistakes when measuring static pressure. Static pressure is balloon pressure, not CFM or velocity pressure, but it can be an airflow indicator. The best way to start learning about static pressure is to start measuring total external static pressure.

Gas furnaces and heat pumps are different; static pressure is rated at the furnace in the former (not the cased coil, which is additional), and the static pressure includes the coil in a heat pump. The highest static pressure will always be at the blower, but restrictions on either side of the blower will raise static pressure on both sides of the blower.

Dirty components can drop the total external static pressure, which is a common point of confusion that can lead to misdiagnosis. You'll want to determine static pressure at the blower and across components. If you want to determine if a cased evaporator coil is clogged, you can measure the static pressure drop across the coil (by measuring below and above the coil) and compare it to the manufacturer's specifications. Dirty blower wheels can also cause problems, as they don't move much air in the first place.

Lower static pressure at the blower is the best for amp draw and airflow, and our system designs and accessories can support low static pressure. Dialing in airflow, putting your probes in the right positions when you measure static pressure, proper register and grille selection, and minimally restrictive filters all go a long way.

Have a question that you want us to answer on the podcast? Submit your questions at https://www.speakpipe.com/hvacschool.

Purchase your tickets or learn more about the 6th Annual HVACR Training Symposium at https://hvacrschool.com/symposium.

Subscribe to our podcast on your iPhone or Android.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Check out our handy calculators here or on the HVAC School Mobile App for Apple and Android

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hubba Hubba. This is the HVAC School podcast. I'm Brian. This is the podcast that helps you remember some things.
0:10.2	You might have forgotten along the way as well as helps you remember some things you forgot to know in the first place.
0:14.3	And today we're going to be talking about static pressure mistakes, monometer mistakes. I've talked about this before, but it's always worth talking about.
0:20.7	We just did a class on this.
0:22.3	Bert did a class.
0:23.1	I got to be part of it.
0:24.3	And just some reminders here.
0:25.8	But before you do that, we want to thank our great sponsors.
0:28.8	The ESCO Institute, with over 200 HVACR training solutions, courses, webinars, and simulators.
0:35.0	Find out more by going to escogroup.org.
0:38.7	Refrigeration Technologies at refrigetec.com.
0:43.0	Fieldpeace and Fieldpeace University.
0:46.1	Get Nate credits, take amazing courses on everything from evacuation, leak detection, gas.
0:51.6	Find out more.
0:52.3	Go to fieldpiece.com slash fieldpiece-dash university. That to fieldpiece.com slash fieldpiece dash university. That's
0:55.5	fieldpiece.com slash field piece dash university. Navak at navak global.com. Carrier and carrier
1:04.8	dot com. So static pressure, super important measurement to take. A couple of things right off the bat that I like to remind people of is that the best way to learn about static pressure is just to start measuring it. Heaven's sake. Measure total external static. This is not a podcast about how to do that necessarily more just about the things to avoid and the mental errors that can lead to problems
1:28.6	with it. But the best bet is to just start doing it. We've suggested before the static pressure
1:33.6	probes with the bend on it. Those are great. That's the best way to measure static pressure. But
1:37.0	sometimes it's just more practical to use the thinner probe. So you can use a ball needle in some
1:41.0	cases. That can even go in a screw hole. But RetroTech makes these
1:44.5	nice, long, thin probes that you can use now that work really well. I would suggest grabbing
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bryan Orr, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bryan Orr and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.