Interest in wood-fired hydronic heating systems continues to rise along with the price of conventional fuel. What kind of solutions are available and how do you handle them?

While the chiller is typically the most visible part of the system, other key components include chilled and condenser water pumps, cooling towers, heat exchangers, etc. This article focuses on maintaining these components “beyond the flange,” which are found in most typical building comfort cooling applications.

As an industry, whether an HVACR contracting firm is doing service and maintenance or installations, employees need to go to the jobsite to perform their work. Because installers and service technicians have to be on the road for their job, some going to several jobsites in a day, they need vehicles to drive.

In many aspects the first part of a job is like detective work — not only does a technician need to identify the problem but he also must determine its root cause. A good initial step is to visually inspect the entire system.

Anytime a group of contractors get together, have you noticed that it only takes a few minutes for the conversation to get around to how low-price competitors are making it difficult to do business in their market?

Properly sizing and installing the suction line of a refrigeration system is very important to its overall operation. What happens when they aren’t installed properly and how can you avoid this? 

Many refrigeration systems are installed using an outdoor air-cooled condenser. When these systems are installed in a climate where the outdoor temperature drops below 60°F, some means of preventing the condensing pressure from dropping too low must be incorporated into its design.

Hybrid sealants are drawing more attention from contractors and distributors. According to comments from within the industry solicited by Cliplight Manufacturing, which makes a variety of sealants, there is an interest for sealants that are a combination sealant, drying agent, and dye.

In the warm summer season, cooling equipment operates at near peak capacity. If that equipment is used for critical building functions, any equipment downtime for whatever reason is unacceptable.

Bob and Tim have arrived at Tim’s first service call. Tim asked Bob, “What is this call all about?” Bob said, “This is a new customer that wants us to take over the maintenance work for this apartment house.”