Who is Responsible for Proper Sizing?
HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs
Bryan Orr
4.9 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2019
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Nate Adams and Michael Housh give the HVAC 2.0 rebuttal to the idea of standard load calculations. They take a different, possibly more radical approach to proper sizing.
Michael and Nate believe in doing real-world load calculations, not just relying on models for load calculations. They are on the side of replacing equipment like-for-like unless the customer will pay for the proper load calculation; customers should have the option to get a free quote for a like-for-like or slightly smaller replacement or a full consultation, but they will often opt to choose the free quote for a similar or slightly smaller unit. The full consultation includes blower door tests and load calculations, which are keys to proper equipment sizing.
Even once we do all the typical tests for consultation (blower door, duct leakage, load calculation), there is still some room for ambiguity. The tests are not all-telling, but they exist to help the contractor and homeowner decide what the next step should be. No matter what, there will be some degree of guesswork, but there will be far less guesswork if you perform all the tests and look at utility usage.
Some problems can be "HVAC'd away," but excessive leakage may require work on the actual shell of the home to address cracks and infiltration points. To "HVAC problems away," proper equipment sizing will play a major role in promoting comfort.
Nate, Michael, and Bryan also discuss:
- Like-for-like tonnage
- Building customer relationships through consultation
- Windows and radiant heat loads
- Natural pressurization vs. blower door testing
- Sizing increments and room for error
- Air changes per hour (ACH)
- Assessing leakage rates
- Moisture problems and dehumidification
- Load calculation theater
- The consumer-oriented mindset
- Diagnostic pyramid
- Natural leakage
- Communicating testing practices to your sales team
Learn more about Nathan's work, go to energysmartohio.com or natethehousewhisperer.com.
Learn more about Refrigeration Technologies HERE.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | and This episode of the HVAC School Podcast is made possible by our sponsors and |
| 0:19.8 | our sponsors are Navac at Navac Global. |
| 0:22.8 | I've talked a lot about Navac. |
| 0:23.9 | If you haven't looked at the battery powered vacuum bomb, |
| 0:25.8 | then you can pause this, that's fine, pause it. |
| 0:29.2 | Go to truetech tools.com, look at it there. |
| 0:31.6 | Or go to Navac Global.com and have a look there or go to atvac Global |
| 0:32.8 | and have a look there. If you go to true tech and you want to buy it |
| 0:35.1 | use the offer code gets cooled for a great discount. |
| 0:37.2 | Speed clean and speed clean.com speed clean makes a lot of great |
| 0:40.0 | products. I've talked about this before. They make coils shot if you want to clean |
| 0:43.4 | condenser coils without using liquid cleaner and I can think of some examples |
| 0:46.6 | where that might make a lot of sense, especially if you've got maybe a junior technician |
| 0:50.4 | with a small van and he's doing a lot of |
| 0:52.8 | mainances and you don't want to put liquid cleaners on the truck you can use |
| 0:56.5 | coil shot for that. It works good. You just have to have the |
| 0:59.2 | oil shotgun you have to have the tablets and you have to set the dial on the side of the gun in order to |
| 1:04.5 | mix the proper amount of cleaner and you got to kind of consider water |
| 1:07.1 | temperature too because warmer water is going to create more foam it's going to use |
| 1:11.8 | more cleaner than colder water but I think there's a lot of people who like it. |
| 1:15.6 | One of my technicians really likes it, uses it regularly, and it's a good product. It cleans well. |
| 1:20.7 | It's just a little different process. So that is Coil Shot from Speed Clean. Also |
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