This past week, NBC’s Today show aired a segment that challenged the honesty and integrity of air conditioning technicians. Producers of the show staged a simple, easy-to-fix broken wire in an a/c system. Six technicians failed to make the proper recommendation. I believe that lack of proper training is a big part of the problem.

In this month’s troubleshooting problem, you have been called by a colleague who is relatively new to HVACR to assist in repairing a split system in a manufactured home. The original diagnosis regarding this unit that is sitting dead was that the PCB 3-amp fuse was blown, and when it was replaced, the new fuse also failed.

If properly followed, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 188 stands to affect the way water systems are managed in hundreds of thousands of buildings in the United States.

... So the guy stands there with his mouth agape and says, “But Doc, why do you have to operate on my foot? The splinter is in my finger!” Why am I leading off with a punch line? Because it applies to about 80 percent of people who can’t figure out why their website doesn’t “work.”

Oncor has awarded the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) with a $98,371 cash incentive for replacing older cooling equipment with energy-efficient HVAC equipment in its Supplemental Utility Plant and residence halls.

Bob and Tim have gone back to the job with the grounded compressor. They changed the compressor yesterday and ran the unit for a few minutes, then shut the system down, leaving the crankcase heat on so they could start it up later. They now want to determine why the compressor burned.

Energy codes are emerging or being updated nationwide. As air leakage testing becomes a requirement, some testers wonder what value it adds over informed visual inspections. Here are five reasons why blower door and duct leakage testing actually saves auditors’ and homeowners’ time and money.

Companies with federal contracts or subcontracts may soon risk losing their contracts if they do not meet quotas to hire more disabled workers. Proposed rule changes would require employers with federal contracts and subcontracts to set a hiring goal that 7 percent of their employees are qualified workers with disabilities.

McCormick & Company Inc. and Constellation Energy, a business unit of Exelon, have announced that McCormick’s 363,000-square-foot distribution center in Belcamp, Md., now generates more electricity than it uses though the implementation of energy efficiency and solar power.

For over 50 years, evaporative cooling products have been manufactured from hot-dip galvanized steel. Life expectancy of these units, when properly installed and maintained, has been excellent. In recent years, however, there have been reports of “white rust.” The critical fact that needs to be recognized is that white rust is preventable.