Active in the HVACR industry since the 1950s, Bill Johnson graduated in gas fuel technology and refrigeration from the Southern Technical Institute, a branch of Georgia Tech (now known as Southern Polytechnic Institute). He taught HVAC classes at Coosa Valley Vocational & Technical Institute for four years. He moved on to become service manager for Layne Trane, Charlotte, N.C. He taught for 15 years at Central Piedmont Community College, part of this time as program director. He had his own business for five years doing installation and service work. Now retired, he is the author of Practical Heating Technology and Practical Cooling Technology, and continues as a co-author of Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Technology, seventh edition, all published by Delmar Cengage Learning. For more information, he can be reached at 704-968-0000 or thebillj1@gmail.com.
Btu Buddy Notebook is a collection of more than 50 service call scenarios in book form covering both cooling season and heating season troubleshooting. For more information and to purchase the book, visit the HVACR Industry Store.
Bob and Tim are at a job where a technician from another company could not figure out the electrical, so he just put the panel back on the electrical compartment and left the job. It is a heat pump and the compressor wiring is all loose. They need to figure out how to wire it back and find out the problem.
Bob and Tim are at a job where a customer has damaged a refrigerant line on a heat pump. When they arrive, the line is still blowing a slight amount of vapor from the split in the line.
Bob and Tim are on a service call with an aggravated customer. The customer explained to them three different service companies had been out to her house this summer and all of them told her that she had a leak they could not find.
Bob and Tim are looking at a system that has a frozen evaporator coil. The system is in a home. They are talking about what has happened to the system and what to do about it.
Bob and Tim are on their way to a new job and discussing what the work order said. Tim tells Bob that the customer is new and the work order says the thermostat is set at 74°F while the thermometer reads 78°F, and unit is running full time. The customers are uncomfortable.
Bob and Tim are driving to a new customer site where there is a complaint of the building not maintaining the correct temperature. The system is a 50-ton air cooled chiller mounted on the roof. The weather is very hot, 97°F, and the indoor conditions are 78°F. The thermostat is set for 75°, and it is late afternoon.
Bob and Tim are going out to a new job. It’s an air cooled chiller on the rooftop of an office building. This is the first air cooled chiller that Tim has ever seen so Bob is going to have to describe the operation of the chiller to Tim.
Bob and Tim are at lunch and discussing the last service call that they had which was a spring start up on a 100 ton chiller. Tim has some questions about how a chiller operates and Bob is filling him in on some blank places that he has in his knowledge base.
