At www.achrnews.com, The NEWS' Extra Edition page is home to hundreds of online-exclusive service and maintenance, technical, and business management articles. Here are some of the best.

Applying the Predictive Approach to Maintenance

Predictive maintenance compares the trend of measured physical parameters against known engineering limits for the purpose of detecting, analyzing, and correcting problems before failure occurs. A predictive approach can be applied to any equipment problem if, first, a physical parameter like vibration, temperature, pressure, voltage, current, or resistance can be measured. An engineering limit for the measured physical parameter must be established so a problem can be detected during routine monitoring. Also, the limit should be low enough to detect the problem before destructive damage occurs.

http://bit.ly/1ekiEZ8

Applying Ultraviolet Air Treatment Systems

Ultraviolet air treatment systems are fairly new to the HVAC industry, and there are still a lot of questions about how they work to treat the air. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other authorities on IAQ agree that there are three proven ways of improving air quality: source control, ventilation, and filtration. Ultraviolet air treatment systems address the source of air quality problems by killing airborne bacteria and surface mold.

http://bit.ly/19UTcK4

Btu Buddy 2: Charging a System After Loss of Charge

Bob has received a call from the company dispatcher that a 10-ton R-22 air conditioning system cooling an insurance company is not functioning. There seems to have been some sort of accident with the condensing unit. The condensing unit sits outside the office and the evaporator section is just inside the building in an equipment room. When the customer called, she told the dispatcher that the lawn care company reported that they had damaged a pipe and it was spraying a white cloud of something with oil in it all over the place.

http://bit.ly/1dNEQKm

Being an Extraordinary Leader Through Tough Times

Tough and challenging times will surely come for a business leader. That is a given. Certainly, many would say that we are currently living in tough and challenging times. The question is, what kind of leadership will we demonstrate during those times? Those who are weak leaders will see lasting damage done, if not see their organizations fall apart completely. With extraordinary leaders at the helm, however, an organization can actually become stronger and thrive in spite of the tough times.

http://bit.ly/Kf85Nq

Publication date: 2/10/2014

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