Heating Help

refrigerant

@ June 17, 2013 12:40 PM in the old man needs a hand

Look up refrig. line carrying capacity on yahoo, they have numerous sites,  Mquay and Parker/Sporlan have a good PDF.

overcharge ?

@ June 6, 2013 9:02 PM in High subcool

Almost all systems have a critical charge unless they have a liquid receiver.  I would follow Spence's advice, and also consider reclaiming refrig. triple evacuating, use micron guage,  and than weighing in the charge, the charge listed on the cond. unit usually takes in account about a 25 ft. line set. ( check with the unit manufact.)   All service people need to have a digital scale with them.

refractory

@ June 6, 2013 10:49 AM in Firebox temperature in residential natural gas powered steam boiler

I have always used greenpatch -421 on commercial jobs    3200 degrees

consulting

@ May 31, 2013 9:26 AM in consulting

Thanks Mark

consulting

@ May 30, 2013 10:11 AM in consulting

Thanks Jamie   great info.

consulting

@ May 29, 2013 6:21 PM in consulting

Thanks Henry    what type of insurance would one want to carry, the same as a contractor ?     maybe we can talk further.

consulting

@ May 29, 2013 10:31 AM in consulting

I retired 2 yrs ago after a long hvac career, I was considering starting a buisness consulting on HVAC systems, I would specialize on older bldgs up to 12 floors with old pneumatic controls, old steam and hydronic systems and chillers, I did this the last 5 yrs of working.   Any thoughts, do's or dont's would be appreciated

tower

@ May 24, 2013 11:17 AM in cooling towers

Need more details, what brand is tower, how many floors is building, is tower on roof, where is pump.   filling tower is done at tower,and sometimes can be filled in other areas depending on design.  amount of air in system depends on how much water was drained.  filling usually requires filling the sump than bumping the pump, sometimes running the pump for 30 secs or so, this may be a time consuming process, air will eventually get to top of tower piping,  bring a 2nd man to help, having a garden hose as a secondary fill into the sump is helpful. before you start check to see if any drain valves have been left open on any floors, verify if roof and roof drains are in good shape, make sure pump is ready to oper. (valves in proper pos.)  have your 2nd man check for piping,valve leaks when filling. The baskets are usually strainers depending on tower, leave them in untill you wash and clean out tower than clean them. Check to see if tower has adequate water treatment system. remember the wye straiers in the system may be extemely difficult to remove ( 2 men 2- 24 inch wrenches) but must be removed and checked.

t-stat

@ May 23, 2013 2:50 PM in help upgrading 2 wire system thermostat!

Typical heating/cooling single stage t-stat wiring is  R (red) = 24volts  with Rh and Rc jumpered on 1 transformer systems.      W (white) = heating.   Y (yellow) =cooling.   G (green) = indoor fan.     and in alot of cases there will be a common wire which could be black, blue or brown  this would need to be verified. Not sure how your oper. heating and cooling with 2 wires.    do you have a sep. cooling t-stat or control ?   probably time to call a pro.

cooling towers

@ May 23, 2013 11:05 AM in cooling towers

First of all you should get some tech. info on cooling towers to go over. When I was an hydronics instructor we would spend over 2 wks on towers. I would pull the strainer baskets and inspect them. Recommend cleaning strainers every 3 months on an open tower. Also doing a chemical cleaning of risers periodically. There is a misconception that opening valve on wye strainer will flush strainer, you need to pull the basket. I would also verify accuracy of guages and replace as needed. You should have full flow from downcomer pipe on top of tower if your system is filled correctly, give it some time to equalize. if you overfill it will run out overfill pipe, it may take some time to get the tower loop filled correctly.  Guage pressure will depend on piping, strainer condition, bldg height, individual units and pumps. Need to get that fill line fixed and check the float. if you get a hold of the tower rep. they may help, BAC and Marley usually have good factory support.    This would have been good in the commercial category

lwco

@ May 21, 2013 3:29 PM in low water cut-off

sorry I meant the same or tighter as commercial

lwco

@ May 21, 2013 3:27 PM in low water cut-off

that scares me, residential should have the same or tighter code requiements in your area

lwco

@ May 20, 2013 4:37 PM in low water cut-off

Curious, what boiler/mechanical inspector allowed this install without one.

non condensibles

@ May 16, 2013 10:12 AM in r22 condenser

Reclaim refrigerant, triple evacuate and weigh in correct charge. A digital scale is a great tool to have.

ductulator

@ May 12, 2013 5:08 PM in duct sizing

I would invest in a Trane Ductulator, about $15.00 on line, than I use roughly 400 cfm per ton

Taco

@ May 7, 2013 11:18 AM in Taco

Thanks Dan very interesting to watch

amtrol

@ April 26, 2013 10:12 AM in Expansion tank replacement with a what is that?

The triangle valve is a Amtrol (Fill - trol) valve, it is an auto feed valve with a built in check valve, see Amtrols website to see how it works. Your system was designed using this so leave it in. Changing the tank safely  will most likely require lowering system press.. and water temp. remember if the diaphram in the tank has leaked the tank will be extremely heavy.   Look up past posts on replacing ex-pansion tanks, remember the hardest part of this job may be to getting the air out of the system after the tank has been replaced. This is a job for a pro

pipe

@ April 25, 2013 5:22 PM in Hot Water Recirculation pipe erosion

Looks like the pipe was not reamed, are there any leaks at the solder joints

fitter

@ April 25, 2013 9:30 AM in National Plumber Day!

Thank you Rod.   I would recommend any young person today to consider a career as a U.A. plumber or steamfitter, It was a great career for me.

piping

@ April 24, 2013 9:59 AM in What's Wrong

This is about the 4th picture i have seen on the wall where the expansion tank is not supported

high ambient

@ April 22, 2013 10:36 AM in ok here is the answer early

I have run into situations in the past where I would use a water sprinkler next to condensing unit to lower the cond. temp until a could get the indoor heat load down

insulation

@ April 21, 2013 1:06 PM in uninsulated steam pipe

I would insulate the pipe with 2 inch fiberglass and than build a small insulated chase aruond the pipe