Learning all about the heat pump

In HVAC cooling it moves from inside to outside which allows for cooler air to follow.

The only time I think I ever heard the term heat pump was in reference to a particular part of a motor or something. I had no idea what the HVAC equivalent of a heat pump actually was. This is because I lived in a region where there were few central air conditioning systems and the gas furnace was the focus anyway. It’s safe to say that I come from a place that puts very little value on HVAC cooling. Well, all that has changed for me now. It’s a whole new world when it comes to heating and cooling. And that world is also upside down now that HVAC cooling is the primary HVAC function. All this came with a very radical change of scenery as well. Having taken a job in the south, I no longer have to be concerned with any heating method so much. And now I also know why they call it a heat pump. The HVAC heat pump is a very versatile piece of HVAC technology. Down here, I have heating and cooling in one piece of HVAC equipment. And it is really pumping heat, sort of. A heat pump is actually able to move heat. In HVAC cooling it moves from inside to outside which allows for cooler air to follow. And the heat pump simply reverses refrigerant flow when it’s in heating mode. Since there isn’t a great need for heat during the very mild winter, the heat pump is more than enough for heating. Among other differences I’m learning to love, the heat pump is right up there at the top.

 

Radiant floor heating

Getting comfortable with HVAC upgrade

I’m the sort of person who really doesn’t seek out change.

This is not the result of getting older or anything else.

No, I have always like structure and no surprises when it comes to living my life. For years, I have come home from the office to do the same routine in the HVAC comfort of my home. I rarely vary from that nightly routine. That doesn’t mean that I am implacable or unable to welcome changes into my life. However, selling our house and moving is not one of the changes that I welcome. But, it’s for sure time to do just that. We are both retiring in the coming years and the housing market is white hot in our area right now. So we chose to put the house on the market. The first thing the realtor told me was to replace the HVAC equipment. This was a bit of a stunner given the fact that the heating and cooling system was maybe a dozen years old. Plus, we were enrolled in a great HVAC service plan so it was very well serviced and maintained. Now, I’m supposed to just rip that out? It just didn’t make sense. Fortunately, the realtor was able to provide me with local data to help me understand just how important new HVAC equipment is to buyers. When I read that and then did a bit of research on my own, I was convinced that the outlay for a new HVAC unit would be a very wise investment. However, I made sure the HVAC company would either donate or part out the HVAC equipment that we replaced. It was just in too good of shape to be simply junked.

air purification system

Using Facebook to find HVAC work

Having to order specific HVAC components was sort of a big deal, and I wanted to keep things nice and simple.

I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but I was smart enough to use social media to boost my career. I wish I would have had the idea a lot sooner! Sadly, I spent the first few months of being jobless and in lockdown feeling sorry for myself. I had no income, was struggling month to month, and to be honest I started drinking more than I should have. Then while scrolling Facebook one day I saw an ad for a hair stylist. I decided then and there that I could run posts about my HVAC skills, and see if anyone needed freelance work done. I wanted to start small, and ease into it with air quality checks, air filter changes, and ductwork cleaning, which appealed to a lot of people scared about the COVID virus. These tasks also didn’t require any major equipment or replacement parts, which saved a lot of time and money. Having to order specific HVAC components was sort of a big deal, and I wanted to keep things nice and simple. Thankfully, the return on investment I got through using social media ads was substantial, and I booked a lot of little HVAC jobs over the next few weeks. It wasn’t a ton of money, I was not on my way towards starting my own HVAC business, but it was work, and brought a little money coming in. After the quarantine was lifted, I actually started to apply with different local HVAC contractors, hoping one of them would recognize me from social media.
Air conditioning install

No AC leads me to some bad decisions

Around here we call it the Summer Madness.

It is the temporary insanity you can experience during the excessive heat and high humidity of the summer.

It happens to all of us at one point or another, so almost everyone has an embarrassing story from one summer or another. For me, it is one that has sort of become legendary around here, and I doubt I will ever fully live it down. Please hear me out on this, because when I say I got into a fistfight with my own mother two summers ago, you’ll think that I’m a terrible person, but it was just the Summer Madness. First of all, the air conditioning at our house had been out for three days at this point, in the middle of a heatwave like we had never seen before. Daytime temps were hitting one hundred degrees, with the humidity levels not far behind, and the outside air quality was so thick you had to drink it, not breathe it. Mom and I had been on each others nerves before the air conditioning died, and this certainly didn’t help matters at all. Then what set it off was the fridge got unplugged somehow, so the interior of it was heating up and warming the beer. No A/C and no cold beer set us both off, and when she shoved me, I just responded by punching her in the face. Once they hauled me down to the nice air conditioned jail cell and I cooled down, I realized I had really messed up.

 

Air conditioning worker

Choosing the right HVAC contractor

It’s funny how people will shop around for the best deals of some things, but not others.

My wife, for example, is a bargain hunter, and will spend an entire morning hitting every grocery store in the area to get the best values of everything.

It’s pretty incredible, and I would estimate she saves us at least 200 bucks a month on our food budget. At the same time, she doesn’t use these bargain-hunting abilities for anything beyond groceries. If we need a pool service, or work done around the house, she just hires whoever and doesn’t even compare prices! When the time came to replace our central HVAC system, I wanted to get three different price quotes from different contractors. My wife wanted to agree to the first quote we got, and that HVAC contractor seemed like a good guy, but I still held off. I am glad I did, because the second HVAC contractor gave me an estimate that was almost half as much as the first guy! Once again, my wife wanted to take the deal, but still I held off, because the price was too low. I don’t want cheap, shoddy HVAC work if I am getting a new system, I want it to be strong, efficient, and reliable. The third HVAC contractor gave me an estimate that was very similar to the first guy, but he went into much greater detail about everything that needed to be done. I went with the third HVAC contractor, because his price seemed fair, and he was very friendly and easy to talk to.

 

Air conditioning corporation

Don’t fool around with your own HVAC system

There are certain things I can’t bring myself to pay for, I just don’t feel the cost is worth it. Some things are going to be worth the money no matter the cost, because it requires an expert. But for the simple stuff, the around the house stuff, I feel it’s my job to do them myself. A lot of people around here pay for a crew to come in and cut the grass. I have a lawnmower, I have arms and legs, why would I pay someone a couple hundred bucks to do it for me? It makes no sense. I will not blink when it comes to paying the HVAC tech a couple hundred bucks to work on my system, though, because that is a job I cannot do. Anyone who tells you that HVAC work is easy, or that they can figure out how to do it on their own, is either stupid or crazy. Most HVAC techs go to school to prepare for the certification exam, and then do an apprenticeship as well, just to develop the right skills to do the job. Heating systems and cooling systems, ventilation, humidifiers, air purification systems, these are all separate things that work together to make a perfect HVAC system, and it takes a lot of time to learn how to do it well. So in this case, I am happy to pay the tech whatever they ask . I know if I try and work on my own HVAC system it will ruin the whole thing, and I will need to drop ten grand on a replacement.
Programmable thermostat

You want to get it right in the beginning

There are more than 2 serious issues that plague any HVAC component especially if it is aged, but a lot of issues stem from a poorly done fitting.

I suppose this is what I am currently dealing with at our own house.

Since our HVAC component was fitted, it had always given me and others plenty of issues plus constant repairs which cumulatively cost a lot. I also do not appreciate having several strangers in our house every now plus then especially with the Covid-19 bacteria in the indoor air. I was speaking to an a/c professional plus I complained of the issues I had with our family cooling system. He listened diligently plus when I was done ranting, he asked if he would visit our local premises to check on the air conditioning unit. The first thing he tested when he finally got to our premise was the a/c install plus the state of it, which confirmed what he always thought. It was poorly done plus it was the cause of most of our issues. To service this issue, he finally refitted the multi-split air conditioning component in another part of the house which was a far better location. He also proceeded to do an a/c care idea on the indoor air cleaning system. From then the issues reduced plus so did the cost of operating the HVAC unit on a regular basis, even in the dead of the summer heat and humidity. When the foundation is wrong, everything will be wrong down the road plus that’s the bottom line.

Heater for sale

I gave them a novel task for analysis

I had climbed up the ladder at my job through our difficult job plus dedication. I was now the senior trainer of new HVAC worker recruits! Part of the training included taking them through a series of instructions plus issueshooting for all kinds of issues that affect HVAC units. I had also created a full pamphlet plus a video that illustrated the steps involved in the a/c care plan. The new recruits were completing the training sessions before being fully inducted as certified a/c professionals. They had also carefully trained in a/c install. When done well, the initial fitting of the air conditioning would easily solve a lot of future issues emanating from the initial setup. When the multi-split air conditioning device at the office malfunctioned, I saw it as a fantastic pick for it to be their final test. They had a write-up of the steps involved in fixing the cooling system, later, they would attempt to service the issue for me. The first thing they did was to check on the minor units such as the indoor air cleaning system. They carefully cleaned the a/c filter in order to improve air quality at the office. They then tested to see whether the old climate control component was honestly working well. After that, they went deeper to check on the various cooling products to ensure they had not gone through wear. They got the equipment from the nearest air conditioning provider from the local business since they knew they would get a discount. Finally, they went and assessed the parts to determine whether they had the latest cooling technology. They knew they had passed the training.

Clickable live link

She almost died that day

When I was picking up our mail this afternoon, I happened to overhear groans from our neighbor’s house, Mr.

Nancy.

Since his kids had come to see him, I thought that it could be them playing plus I almost went back to our house. However because Mr. Nancy was an elderly man, I thought it would give myself and others peace of mind to just check on her. Mr. Nancy had slid on the water paddle on his floor plus broken his hip. The two of us called the city ambulance plus the fire department. They recommended the people I was with and I got an a/c professional to check on the cooling system. I had been honestly working as a certified worker in the HVAC industry for a long time plus so I contacted our team to schedule a visit to Mr. Nancy’s house. Turns out that the refrigerant on the multi-split air conditioning was actually not enough plus so some ice had accumulated on the component plus then when Mr. Nancy, set the un-even temperatures low using the climate control component during the night, the brick of ice melted forming water puddles on the floor near the unit. The air conditioning provider carefully sent over some refrigerant plus the issue was fixed. To increase Mr. Nancy’s indoor comfort, I decided to perform an a/c care idea on the air conditioning component as well as the entire indoor air cleaning system. When he left the hospital, he found his HVAC component all updated, plus the water puddle that caused his fall was there no more.

New HVAC systems

The stink that we can’t quit

For a couple of weeks now, I noticed a foul smell in our house.

I had done plenty of Springtime cleaning right before Summer plus so I knew it could not have been a dead rodent or anything more serious.

Anyhow, I still re-cleaned our entire house but the smell did not go away. I certainly noticed that the smell was more pronounced when our multi-split air conditioning. Since the Summer heat easily was at its peak, I could not switch off our air conditioning unit. I tried issueshooting the stupid issue by increasing the a/c filter. This just improved the air quality within the house. However, the entire indoor air cleaning method did not get rid of the foul smell. I even tried increasing the indoor temperature using the climate control device, but the issue still persisted. I finally resorted to going and calling the a/c professional. After assessing the cooling system, the professional determined that the entire issue was that the drainage pipe was clogged with all sorts of disgusting debris. In addition, the old pipe also had a leak plus was practically unusable. Every time the cooling product was on, the indoor air flowing through the drainage pipe collected the smell from all the debris. The air conditioning provider promptly sent over a new pipe that the professional fitted. As part of the a/c care plan, the professionals also rapidly tested on other parts of the component to ensure it was functioning at 100 percent. After months of headaches, the smell was gone.

 

Indoor comfort business