Regular Guest
Nick,
I completely understand what you mean reference to working crazy hours. I sit behind a computer currently but really want to get back doing the kind of hands on activity with my dad we did on installs and maintenance.
I also really like the part (and my dad said it on a boiler job one day) that there is a lot of variety to the work you do.
I really like the idea of being able to help people feel more comfortable inside where they work or live. It's the comfort and maintenance aspect of helping someone that is lost with the equipment. I would suppose, once I got older, the snow and cold really didn't seem as fun anymore, and the oppressive heat of summer wasn't any better LOL.
Matt
Regular Guest
You are so right. There is a lot of opportunity in the commercial aspect of this industry. What I learned fast is reading up on the equipment and knowing what not to do
I really like being able to help fix when the need arises. The knowledge you build can be applied farther down the road on other jobs. My dad once told me that you can't presume a part won't fail. On troubleshooting that helps a lot.
Matt
Regular Guest
A tripped breaker. It's those times when it's the simplest of problems that I like the most. You try to figure out what is wrong and remember to start at the beginning.
It's really good the DOD came through for you.
Matt.
New Guest
Hello to everyone.
I'm new on the forum. My name is Zivko and everyone call me Zika. I'm working 16 years in HVACR field, and still counting. I'm glad to be part of this forum, and I hope I can learn from others and share my experiences with you all.
Thanks,
Zika
Professional Member
I Learned a lot being stuck by myself as a maintenance guy with a little votech experience. I read a lot of books ( internet was not around then). After I gained experience I went to work for a mechanical company that was installing and maintaining all kinds of equipment. Geothermal, chillers, boilers, building automation, etc. I have learned plenty in the last 12 years there. I am looking forward to learning more from everyone.
Professional Member
Hello Everyone, I've been looking through threads for a few weeks and just realized that I need to post in here to introduce myself and build a post count. My name is Joe, and I'm currently enrolled in a trade school. We are a few weeks away from finishing up, and although I've learned a lot, there's so much I don't know. We spent a lot of time with Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (Building, Installing, and Wiring from start to finish, then trouble shooting), and we took our EPA test last week. Now we are just beginning heating. So far we've mostly concentrated on Hydronic Systems. I enjoy looking through threads and seeing what I can figure out, but also get down at times when I have no clue what people are talking about, lol. Hopefully as class continues, I'll find myself less confused.
Professional Member
Finished a 4 Zone Hydronic system in class today using Zone Valves. 1st Zone using copper piping to 2 baseboards, 2nd Zone using pex to 1 baseboard, 3rd Zone to indirect water heater, and 4th Zone to Radiant heating under subfloor.
Professional Member
Spent most of class today talking about oil burners, and their control boards, then each person got to take one apart and reassemble it. It was much easier then I would have thought. Toughest part of the project for me was aligning the electrodes. Seemed like every time I had them lined up on the crosshairs of the gauge they were too far apart, and when I moved them closer together they weren't lined up on the crosshairs anymore, lol.
Professional Member
Forgot to mention that we did some sheet metal fabricating towards the end of class today. Although time consuming (we did everything with hand tools), I found it enjoyable. Here is a pic of the first part of the project
Professional Member
Still trying to build my post count to get pro access, so here's what we did in class today, lol. Started out with some trouble shooting exercises with the Hydronic systems we built. Instructor sabatoged our systems and we had to figure out what he did. We were able to figure out that he took our jumper out of the oil burner control board so we had no power to B1 B2. He also removed the eye from the burner, and cut our thermostat wire going to our Zone Valves. The cut thermostat wire was the toughest to diagnose because the burner actually came on a ran for a good 10 minutes before it cut out (never reached temp, cut out around 150º). I was wondering why the burner came on if it didn't get any call for heat, but the instructor figured that the 2 wires were probably touching enough to conduct the 24v before shaking loose to break the connection. Kind of sucked that I got hung up on that, but I'll do a better job next time.
2nd half of class we did more sheet metal duct work, with some more fabricating and fitting stuff together. My hands are starting to look like I was attacked by a tiger. I guess I need to slow down a little when trying to make tight cuts and fit everything together, lol.
Professional Member
Not much new at class today, did a little more sheet metal work, then we went over the proper way to clean a gas furnace.
Regular Guest
"2nd half of class we did more sheet metal duct work, with some more fabricating and fitting stuff together. My hands are starting to look like I was attacked by a tiger. I guess I need to slow down a little when trying to make tight cuts and fit everything together, lol."
I remember getting my hands tore up when I was learning sheet metal.
Keep up the good work.
Professional Member
I started in the trade in '09. Not long ago at all. I just kinda fell into. I was at a crossroads in life and didn't really know what I wanted to do. I had planned to go to school and become a heavy equipment operator, ultimately wanting to be a crane operator. My wife's grandpa talked me out of this as he'd been a heavy equip. op. all of his life. There were 3 or 4 guys that I'd known since I was a kid that were in HVAC and I got to talking to them and decided that was the route I was gonna take.
I enrolled in the Mechanical Technology program at the local community college and started from there. I've always been mechanically inclined and defeat is just not an option for me, so it was a good fit. I graduated 18 months later with a 4.0 and an Associates Degree in Mech. Tech. I quickly found out that even though I'd had done great in the classroom and lab, there was a LOT I did NOT know. It didn't take me long to realize this. Even though the program was great, there was just no way to be prepared for the real-world challenges that you face in the field. But instead of letting that discourage me, I looked at it as an opportunity and that is why I am here. I have tried to surround myself with experienced and knowledgeable people that know their stuff. After "lurking" around the site for a couple weeks, I seen that there are a lot of guys on here with a wealth of knowledge and experience and I wanted to get in on some of it.
Professional Member
Here's a picture of a walk-in we pieced together, and I mean pieced together, lol. One evap fan was 120v, the other was 220v, had to swap out compressors, because first one had faulty valves, but it was a fun learning experience. Wiring is a bit of a mess, but we're running out of time, so this was more about understanding the wiring and getting the components to work then looking pretty.
Professional Member
Also forgot to mention that the original compressor was single phase using a 208 contacter and start capacitor. We switched it out to a 3 phase compressor and contacter. Not a big deal, but it was my first time wiring anything 3 phase, so although it was simple, it was nice to get that experience under my belt.
Professional Member
Not much new today in class, we finished installing a gas boiler. Instructor gave us the silent treatment for most of class today, lol. The guy is a nice guy, and an excellent instructor, but has a tendency to become real childish at times. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of time left, so we'll need to address this with the office if it continues tomorrow. What started out as such a great class is starting to spiral into a train wreck because the instructors time logs don't match ours. We missed time due to Hurricane Sandy, and missed a few days because he took his family on vacation for a Wedding or something. He told the main office he made up all the time but he didn't. I guess they confronted him, and now he's going to make things even worse by not finishing the material we need to get through (like steam heating systems), and just being pissed at us because we want the time we paid for. I guess he doesn't think about the fact that we're all adults ranging from our 20's-50's that have families we need to support and are making a huge commitment with both our money and time to learn this trade, where as he's being paid to be there. Anyway, that was my day, hopefully yours was better! lol.
New Guest
Hello everyone my name is Eddie Just wanted to formaly introduce myself
Hello All!!! Allow me to introduce myself my name is Ed or Eddie. I Live on Long Island New York. Im 32 years old. I grew up with a father who started out as a gas mechanic , then diesel mechanic , then operating engineer, then engineer. He is now sick with 2 types of cancers and is going threw home treatment so lets pray that he beats it.
My father always raised me right and has taught me allot along the way. I grew up helping to fix cars and trucks , then diesel boats and gas boats. I was fortunate enough to grow up with a father that owned boats and we always tuned them up etc etc... My first encounter with an air conditioning system was on my fathers boat and it was a 16,500 BTU salt water condesor cooled central Marine AC system. At the time my father had taken the unit out and pressurized the system to find a leak and braised it and vacumed it out and refilled the system... Worked for over 19 years after that... I went to automotive school for 3 years in high school. Got out of highschool and started working in the after market automotive industry.
I quickly moved to management and it was then when i met my now best friend Jack, He was a professional window tinter that would come in every day all different hours and tint the windows on cars and trucks that the company i was working for would sub contract out to him.
Being that i at the time was managaer I was the one who had to pay him. Well he would come in and lets say he tinted 3 cars I would have to pay him 450 dollars cash which at the time was my weeks pay. So i became friendly with him and asked every day if he would teach me how to tint windows.
Make a long story longer 3 weeks latter he told me if i quite my job and came with him every day he would teach me. So from that point foward I was in the Window Tinting Industry.
I have owned my own Professional window tinting company 3 month after til present day 1998 to 2012. I moved up from titning cars every day to tinting homes and building which is where the big money is in this business..
Well i hit it big one day and got a contract with over 274 locations of a huge commercial chain in the 5 boros and Jersey and Long Island. I was in my second year of servicing this contract when the head management personal began asking me if i knew anyone good that i could reccomend for air conditioning.
Now i have friends in this field and there all owner operators and they make huge money. This was something i always wanted to learn and get into but was doing farly well and with kids and family never pursuied. So I seen an open window and said no but i was going to be going to school for it soon and that after i graduate id be more then happy to service him. Well he was very pleased and has always kept in contact with me since and I still do business for him now to date and we speak on a weekly basis ...
Which brings me to this forum. I have been going to Bradford Hall in bohiema Long Island for 14 months now.... I have learned allot of basics and have had some hands on experience already out of school as well as in school... I do not know it all by any means but have helped friends and family for practice and have always found the issue and fixed there probloms fairly quickly and effictivly to date..
Also that commercial account I have previously talked about last summer I sold 40 phase protectors to and made some big money in a 1 month period installing them all over the city on basic package units and one advanced trane DDC unit..
I was also called in several times on issues with some of there package units and in most case,s it was a either a dead transformer or a bad contatctor or burned off wire off the contactor etc...
What i learned today in school was about algarthiums in DDC Direct digital controls and we hooked up a basic system to some relays and light bulbs to control. It was a honey well simplified programmable system.
The business that im in now we shade people and keep them cool, we can lower a homes heat load drastically be tinting a home or building and figured I should get into the HVAC-R business to expand and grow and take my noledge and icome to the next level...
Thanks again for letting me Join this forum and allowing me to introduce myself, And im sorry in advance for any miss spelled words and grammer errors as I am not great with a key board.
Thanks again Ed
New Guest
Hi Joe, Was reading some of your posts and was curious as to what school your attending? I took all my heating mods the past 3 mods and now we are back onto commercial systems and refrigeration.Originally Posted by Joe7cri
I found that the school im going to hasn,t given me what I paid for either. We were told and promissed 50 percent books and 50 percent hands on. Well it hasnt been anything butt that. With the school going threw teachers like hot hookers and having up to 7 teachers for 1 mod because the teachers dont show for work is very discouraging and dissapointing to me and allot of my fellow school mates. For the most part it seems you have had allot of hands on. Also im surprised that you guys were trained and studied your EPA and took the test already. We dont get training and studied for the EPA we just take a test after we finish all mods.
So thats a plus... Keep your chin up and your nose in your book if your teacher is acting that way. And just make sure you learn somthing new every day and if you have issues keep up the compliants and get what you paid for..
Good Luck..... Eddie
Professional Member
Hey Eddie, thanks for the reply. I'm taking the full time course (5 days a week, 7 hours a day for 3 months) at BOCES in Westchester. The teacher is actually great, and all probably would have been fine if we didn't miss 6 days to Sandy, but now we only have 2 days (16 hours) of class left and still haven't done anything with steam or heat pumps.
Yes, we did have a lot of hands on which is one of the things I loved about the class. The instructor did a great job of explaining things to us, then set us free on bench units or other projects to practice what we learned. We really did a lot with installing and trouble shooting split AC units, Walk In coolers, Small appliances and stuff like that. We also did a lot of work with Hydronic systems from start to finish using both float controls and zone valves, also did a lot of oil burner work but then Sandy hit and things went down hill from there. We did some furnaces, and ducting using gas as a fuel, but it wasn't nearly as informative as the hydronic module was. Felt real rushed. Did a little more work with gas, this time installing a gas fired boiler, and finished that yesterday. Hopefully we'll get into steam today, but if yesterday was any indication of what we'll learn today, I might as well spend my day on youtube watching videos on steam systems lol.
All in all I would recommend the BOCES program (day program), as I said the instructor does have his temper tantrums at times but is very knowledgeable and does a good job explaining the subject matter. Even with this drama, I will give him a good review when class ends, but at the same time if we don't do anything with steam, I will be hitting BOCES up for some type of refund or credit to take a different course to help learn what we missed.
Professional Member
Forgot to answer your EPA question, we spent most of the first 2 months on air condition and refrigeration. After we finished those sections we took the EPA test. Got the results (passed all 3 +core for my Universal), but won't get our cards until we finish class.
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