Troubleshoot the System! w/ Jim Bergmann
HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs
Bryan Orr
4.9 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 August 2021
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In today's podcast, Jim Bergmann talks about troubleshooting the entire system. He takes a holistic approach to the art of troubleshooting, NOT just an equipment-centered one.
According to NIST, the most common HVAC system problems are duct leakage, refrigerant undercharge, and oversized equipment (often for undersized ducts).
Duct leakage heavily affects the envelope; the equipment only plays a part in conditioning a space. As such, you will want to seal up holes that lead to unconditioned spaces, such as behind the thermostat, to avoid creating negative pressure. When there is that negative pressure, especially close to the thermostat, the home could be at risk of over-cooling.
We check that the filter is clean, but we rarely ever question if the filter is good enough for the home. If the filter does not do a good job of improving air quality, you may consider changing the filter type or reducing the air velocity.
Even though we take temperature and pressure readings from the outdoor units, we sometimes fail to look for obvious non-equipment issues. Some yard cleanliness issues, such as vines or pet urine on the condenser, simply get overlooked. These issues may result in high head pressure and are usually more likely than refrigerant overcharge.
Overall, many systems have issues that can be solved with solid visual inspections and corrective measures beyond the equipment, such as addressing duct leakiness. When you troubleshoot better, you bring in more revenue for the company and increase your likelihood of getting a raise while keeping your customers satisfied.
Jim also covers:
- Energy penalties in most HVAC systems
- MeasureQuick and its limitations
- Impacts of duct leakage on a home
- What to check when cleaning condensate drains
- Cleaning evaporators and condensers
- Filter grilles
- HEPA filters and pressure drop
- Bad flex duct practices and sensible heat gain
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of the HVAC School Podcast is brought to you by our trusted sponsors. |
| 0:10.4 | Refrigeration Technologies at Refriggedech.com. They make many, many great products. |
| 0:15.0 | John Pastarello originally started the company when he invented Big Blue, which is hands down my favorite bubble type leak detector. It's so much more than just soap bubbles. |
| 0:25.0 | It is a leak reactant that's designed to show even tiny, tiny bubbles without creating any corrosion |
| 0:32.0 | and without reacting to electronic leak detectors. |
| 0:35.0 | It's great stuff. It comes in the spray bottle. |
| 0:38.0 | If you haven't tried it yet, try out Big Blue from refrigeration technologies and |
| 0:42.0 | also check out their leak detection guide that's on the |
| 0:45.2 | Refrigeration Technologies website. Just browse around a little bit at refriggedec.com. They have really great training |
| 0:50.8 | and education materials there as well. |
| 0:53.2 | Refrigeration technologies at refrigetech.com. |
| 0:57.1 | Carrier and carrier.com. |
| 0:59.1 | Also need to thank Mitsubishi Electric. |
| 1:01.9 | Go to Mitsubishi Comfort.com to find out the full line of products. We often will |
| 1:06.7 | call them duckless products, but frankly, Mitsubishi's making a lot of really great ducked-in |
| 1:10.8 | mini splits nowadays. Some of them low static, some of the medium |
| 1:14.0 | static. Their product line is just enormous. They have a really great grouping of |
| 1:17.6 | products that you can do many different things and many different applications. |
| 1:21.1 | If you haven't taken a look at Mitsubishi in quite a while, go to Mitsub comfort.com and find out more. |
| 1:27.0 | Big thanks to Zoa and Haven IAC to learn more about their innovative indoor air quality measurement solutions that work for |
| 1:36.1 | contractors and their customers, go to haven i.a-a-q.com. Thank you. This is the guy that complains about capacitors failing, but praise for a failed capacitor at his last call every day. |
| 1:55.0 | Brian Orr. |
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