New Guests going Pro?

[Dad]

Yes, I did and I am as happy as a pig in slop.

The Educational Forums will keep you busy for a while. Now, go into the Pub and shake up the boys at the bar.

[uzzo2]

acwizard
Regular Guest

Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 95
Uzzo2, I can see you believe your qualifications have been challenged. Keep your cool, this site is a great place to learn and keep learning. I've been in the hvac industry for now 34 years. Everyday I learn something new, and find myself having to brush up on something I learned in the past. I can not speak for others here, but I am quite sure you will find more people trying to help you than not. Learn from all of our mistakes, stay out of trouble and proudly represent the industry that we all love.

AC-GIRL
Professional Member

UZZ02
I have been in the field for over 15 years and I still have trouble with people thinking I am not capable of doing the repair. I no what kind of worker I am and so does my boss. I do what is right for the customer and the company I work hard with no short cuts. We can learn from you and you can learn from us so do not let the other run you off some of use are here to learn from you and others.

Thanks guys (and gals), I really appreciate the words of encouragement. I take a lot of pride in everything that I do and I think that makes the difference no matter what your background or experience level is. I can always tell by looking at something, no matter what it is, if the person that did it actually cared about what they were doing or just wanted a quick paycheck.

[Klay]

Good Lord, if I had known this was going to turn into this big of an issue, I probably never would've registered here. If any of the mods are following, please feel free to go ahead and delete my account after this post. I just thought that this would be a good resource for me if I ran across something that I had never seen before, but I do have a few folks I can call for help if I need to. I've already said it but let me say it again, from what I can gather I don't need anything other than what I have as far as licensing goes to do what I want to do. If I decide later on that I want to get big time and start doing contract work, new installations, etc... Then I have to get a contractors license, I've already had this discussion with somebody I used to go to church with who believed the same as one of the other posters on this thread. Insinuating that anybody that doesn't have that license is a "hack", my question to him was this. Who decided that just because you have that big license assures that the job is being done right? I didn't get into any detail in one of my previous posts about having to go behind some of these guys with that big license. I'll give just one example here, but there's plenty more. One of my neighbors had 2 split systems installed in 2006, it's a 2 story house. One unit works the upstairs and the other the downstairs, keep in mind now, this company had that big license. The unit that was dedicated for the upstairs he told me worked about a week and quit. He called the company that installed it and they came out when he wasn't there and left him another bill, the unit still wasn't working. He tried calling the guy and could never get him back out there. He called 3 other companies, all licensed and insured between that period of time until about October of last year all charging him between $90 and $100 per hour. None of them could get it running, but still charged him for coming out there. He just so happened to stop by one day when I was working on the service truck that I bought and asked me what I was going to do with it. I told him that I was planning on getting into the HVACR business, that's when he started telling me about all the trouble with this unit. I had no idea because we don't see each other very often other than him passing by my place to get to his. He also told me that the unit that was heating and cooling the downstairs portion of the house wasn't working right. He said he couldn't afford to pay anybody else to come out, the ones that did had broke him, he's on disability. He was so upset that he told me that he wanted to take his shotgun and shoot both of the units. He never asked me, I volunteered, I said "Johnny, do you mind if I go and have a look at them"? I told him that I couldn't promise him anything, but I thought that it would be some good experience for me trying to troubleshoot it. I really had no expectations that I could do anything with them, but I wanted to try. This poor man had been without any A/C at all since the beginning of the summer. So I went down there and I decided that I wanted to check the unit that was working up until the spring for the downstairs. He turned it on, it started up but the condenser fan wasn't running. I pulled the disconnect and got my amp meter out, clipped it on the hot wire to the condenser fan motor. Stuck the disconnect back in, and turned the fan by hand. It started up and ran for about 2 minutes, amp draw went from 1.5 amps to almost 3 amps and it stopped again, I pulled the disconnect and told him to just go turn it off and leave it off until I could get him a new fan motor. It wasn't working right because the compressor was going out on thermal overload. I decided to go ahead and jump on the one for the upstairs portion that hadn't worked almost since day one. I had line voltage to the contactor, but that was about it, nothing on the low side. I went upstairs into his attic to the air handler and started there. I found a blown transformer. I had a new one on my truck, I put it in and wired up a 3 amp inline fuse on the low voltage side. I had him go cut it on at the T-Stat, it blew the fuse instantly so I knew something was wrong. I started tracing the wire which was buried under the insulation in his attic. To try and condense this, I wish I had taken pictures of it to post here. It was pieced and patched together, different color wires, basically a NIGHTMARE. I totally rewired the low voltage side of it, from the T-Stat to the air handler down to the condenser. I started on the both of them about 10AM, it was starting to get dark at this point. We turned it on and it started up, I put my gauges on it and it was very low on freon. I put a little over 5 pounds in it, normally I would automatically expect a leak somewhere. But I thought that no longer than what it actually ran, maybe the guy that installed it didn't get it full. I think they come charged for 25 feet of line set. This was a much longer run, about a week passed, I picked up his fan motor for the other unit. I went down there on my next 2 days off to install it. I asked him how the other unit was doing, there had been some cool mornings so he had it in the heat mode. He told me that it was blowing cold air, I put his fan motor in the other unit and got it going. I then put my gauges on the upstairs unit, low on freon again. I got my leak detector out and went all over the condenser, nothing there. I went back up into the attic and took the cover off the air handler and started there at the evaporator. Right where the discharge line goes into the metering device is a flare nut, it was leaking right there. I got my 2 adjustable wrenches out, tightened it up and as of last week, both units are still working just fine. Now, with all of this being said, I do NOT do any shoddy work. If the customer wants it done that way, I'll tell them to call someone else, I'm going to do it right the first time or I won't do it at all and that's just the way I do things, it's the way I was raised. As far as the contractors license goes, it costs a lot of money by the time you buy all the books and pay for the test. It's an OPEN BOOK TEST, how in the world does one expect to get satisfactory results from a licensed contractor when all he had to do was know where to look for the answers in the book? My thing is that I don't want the Government whether it be Federal, State or Local knowing what I'm doing. I just want to be left alone, the more the Government knows about you, the more they'll be meddling in your affairs. I am going to do what's required of me and that's all I am going to do, nothing more, nothing less. And no Klay, I don't know it all and I don't believe that I made that claim, did I? I like learning something new every day, that's what I love about this business. I am very mechanically inclined, so if it's not working properly, I want to find out why and fix it. That gives me great personal satisfaction. I would be happy to, with my neighbors permission of course, give his number to anybody that doubts the story I told through a PM. I don't think he would have a problem with telling anyone what I did for him. He's doing it already, I am getting calls from the church he goes to and some of the members as well. I just wasn't planning on getting started until Spring time. Sorry to be so long winded here, I just wanted to get a few things straight right off the bat. And like I said at the beginning, if it's going to be a problem here, I'd like to have my account deleted effective immediately.

so does that mean no schooling or licences?
LOL I'm only kidding.
Its kool man, take it easy. I was speaking of legally covering your own behind and saying learning more cant hurt. We get heavy fines for not having these licences, (in this state) and theres alot of safety issues that bring about the necessity for them. Do what you do and I wish you the best.
"Live Long and Prosper"-Spock

[uzzo2]

so does that mean no schooling or licences?
LOL I'm only kidding.
Its kool man, take it easy. I was speaking of legally covering your own behind and saying learning more cant hurt. We get heavy fines for not having these licences, (in this state) and theres alot of safety issues that bring about the necessity for them. Do what you do and I wish you the best.
"Live Long and Prosper"-Spock

Nope, no schooling or licenses that I Don't absolutely have to get. Just something else for Uncle Scam to be getting to know you better. The best schooling I ever got was from the school of hard knocks, AKA... OJT!!! I've always learned more by actually getting out and putting my hands on something and doing it than being in a classroom setting and listening to someone tell me how to do it and then taking a test. The man that's taught me what I know about the HVAC business so far graduated in 1993 with his diploma. He told me that once he got out in the field, almost none of it applied to what he was actually doing. Thanks for the best wishes, I appreciate it.

[dandyme]

Good Lord, if I had known this was going to turn into this big of an issue, I probably never would've registered here.





If any of the mods are following, please feel free to go ahead and delete my account after this post.






I'd like to have my account deleted effective immediately.

not again

[Tlaloc289]

Uzzo2 "Good Lord, if I had known this was going to turn into this big of an issue, I probably never would've registered here. If any of the mods are following, please feel free to go ahead and delete my account after this post. I just thought that this would be a good resource for me if I ran across something that I had never seen before, but I do have a few folks I can call for help if I need to."


I believe the intentions of the licensing discussion wasn’t to shut you down or somehow imply that you were a hack. Rather to give some feedback on some of the things that are needed in our neck of the woods.. if you are not required to have any of them then go for it. Don’t let this discourage you from doing HVAC work. This is a good place to ask for help once you turn PRO im currently working on going Pro myself so just hang in there and keep the good work ethic going.

[Tlaloc289]

For those interested on the progress of the dirty dirty coils.hahaha

THey have been cleaned and the system seems to be working better than when they were installed. The computer room that had a problem bringing the temp below 69* is now too cold, its currently 57* and im trying to warm it up. my ambient temp and VFD Motor are messing with my pressures but it looks like ive got
19*superheat and 45* subcooling. (ambient temp is about 37*) and No I Dont have any liquid Floodback just a long piece of exposed copper and really cold weather

[jpsmith1cm]

Nope, no schooling or licenses that I Don't absolutely have to get. Just something else for Uncle Scam to be getting to know you better. The best schooling I ever got was from the school of hard knocks, AKA... OJT!!! I've always learned more by actually getting out and putting my hands on something and doing it than being in a classroom setting and listening to someone tell me how to do it and then taking a test. The man that's taught me what I know about the HVAC business so far graduated in 1993 with his diploma. He told me that once he got out in the field, almost none of it applied to what he was actually doing. Thanks for the best wishes, I appreciate it.

uzzo,

I'm going to suggest something and I'd like it if you didn't take it the wrong way, OK?

You NEED, NEED, NEED to educate yourself beyond the minimum required.

What is learned in technical schools is absolutely applicable to everyday service and anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool.

You need to understand airflow and heat transfer and the sensible and latent heat loads on a system to know what happens and WHY it happens.

You've joined a site here with a lot of pretty smart guys who are very willing to share what they have learned in the trade.

Step One would be to grow a skin of armor because you WILL get some responses that you don't like and that you don't want to read.

Step Two would be to get your post count up to 17 (I think) and apply for Professional membership where all of the tough problems are discussed and the deep, technicals discussions take place.

[uzzo2]

uzzo,

I'm going to suggest something and I'd like it if you didn't take it the wrong way, OK?

You NEED, NEED, NEED to educate yourself beyond the minimum required.

What is learned in technical schools is absolutely applicable to everyday service and anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool.

You need to understand airflow and heat transfer and the sensible and latent heat loads on a system to know what happens and WHY it happens.

You've joined a site here with a lot of pretty smart guys who are very willing to share what they have learned in the trade.

Step One would be to grow a skin of armor because you WILL get some responses that you don't like and that you don't want to read.

Step Two would be to get your post count up to 17 (I think) and apply for Professional membership where all of the tough problems are discussed and the deep, technicals discussions take place.

Definitely not taking it the wrong way, I'd love to learn all of that stuff. But I'd rather learn it from guys like you are referring to here. You need to understand that we know the instructor here at the technical school. He's been doing it a real long time and is a smart guy. Even he told me when I went and talked to him that I would be better off just trying to get on with a company and work under a skilled technician for a while. He said that I would learn more that way than he could ever teach me in the classroom. He gave us an example, Rheem had a manufacturing plant here, they closed it in 2009 and moved to Mexico. As part of their severence package, they had to further their education so guess where they went. This instructor told us that about 25% of them were just there for the check. When the rest of them graduated and were placed on jobs, well over half of those didn't make it very long. They either quit or were terminated, even the good ones he said that made very good grades just didn't understand what they were supposed to be doing once they got out on a job for some reason. We actually installed a new package unit for one of these guys last summer and we questioned him about it. He worked for Rheem for over 20 years and had been through the program at the school. We asked him why he didn't just install the unit himself with all of the experience he had. He told us that he just assembled them, and he didn't know anything about working on them. We're still scratching our heads over that one, I'm not downplaying a good education mind you. Just saying that everyone learns differently, I'm a hands on kind of guy. I had already enrolled and was ready to go after I healed from my spine surgery. But I couldn't even get a part time job at a fast food joint to try and make ends meet while I was going to school. I have a family to support and my wife is disabled so she can't work. Without me, there's no income coming in, so I can't be sitting in a classroom even if I thought it was a good idea without any income, know what I mean?

[Dad]

Step #3

Learn to use paragraphs.

[uzzo2]

Step #3

Learn to use paragraphs.

Gotcha, tried to edit it, guess that's not an option.

[supertek65]

it is fairly obvious that you are not flooding back, since you have 19 degrees compressor superheat!


just curious?

usually we can cool a space to 70-72 degrees using 55 degree discharge air.

You have brought the space down to 57 degrees, most likely with 40 degree discharge air?

is your SST 25 degrees????????????

suction line temp 44 degrees?? since you have 19 degrees SH?

I work for Sprint and embarq in server rooms, I take care of an underground server room with 100 data air server room units.

I would never let the server room drop below 69 degrees F!

Most systems are not designed for that?

sounds like you have a walk in cooler!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those interested on the progress of the dirty dirty coils.hahaha

THey have been cleaned and the system seems to be working better than when they were installed. The computer room that had a problem bringing the temp below 69* is now too cold, its currently 57* and im trying to warm it up. my ambient temp and VFD Motor are messing with my pressures but it looks like ive got
19*superheat and 45* subcooling. (ambient temp is about 37*) and No I Dont have any liquid Floodback just a long piece of exposed copper and really cold weather

[Tlaloc289]

it is fairly obvious that you are not flooding back, since you have 19 degrees compressor superheat!


just curious?

usually we can cool a space to 70-72 degrees using 55 degree discharge air.

You have brought the space down to 57 degrees, most likely with 40 degree discharge air?

is your SST 25 degrees????????????

suction line temp 44 degrees?? since you have 19 degrees SH?

I work for Sprint and embarq in server rooms, I take care of an underground server room with 100 data air server room units.

I would never let the server room drop below 69 degrees F!

Most systems are not designed for that?

sounds like you have a walk in cooler!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

The computer walk in cooler. I never tought of doing it that way. Just insulate the walls and turn the whole thing into a walk in.

But Yeah My SST is 22*
although ambient today is alot colder its 29* superheat is 16 today subcooling 38

The reason why they want the room temp so cold is they also have these super expensive DVR cameras that record the building 24-7. and they store the information for 2 months, they have an internal temp readout and thats what they use instead of room temp. I tried telling them that the internal temp wasn't that vital and that the cameras could take it but they said they didn't want to risk it.