Q. The recent problem seems to be related to the outdoor cooling fan. The air conditioning system seems to be working properly, but there is a loss of cooling of the air coming from the indoor air conditioning vents. I inspected the outside unit, and yesterday the cooling fan was stopped with a humming/grinding sound. The capacitor looked good (no bulging), but I'm not an electrician and I have no way (or the knowledge) to test voltages and amperages and such. Anyway, I blew on some dust/dirt/cobwebs around some of the wires, and started the system back on and the fan moved at normal speed and the system worked and cooler air came out. However, today, the indoor temperature wasn't maintained and I went outside and the cooling fan was running much slower (but it was running). After I turned off the system, I felt the metal cover of the outside unit, and it was very hot, and it seemed that the source of the heat came from directly above the cooling fan motor. Please contact me!

A. Replace your outdoor fan and while your at it replace the capacitor and everything will be fine. But turn your unit off untill you get it fixed or you'll be changing a compressor or buying a new unit.

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Q. The filter is completely frozen over with ice we cant even remove it.

A. Shut the AC off and let it defrost. Thats usually caused because the filter clogged from not being changed or cleaned. When the filter clogs, air can't circulate and the coils freeze up.

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Q. I live in an upstairs condo. I have a small window air conditioning unit. I was going to install it on a shelf outside the window, but my guys said it is fine sitting on the window ledge backed up to the screen of the window and lowering the window down on top of it, as it has exhaust and intake. Any air conditioning experts out there who could tell me if this is a less efficient way for it to run, or is it all right?

A. Unless things have changed, the screen is approx. 3 to 4 inches from window sash ( the glass) the unit is about 14-16 inches deep. they r designed to sit flush to the sash with the upper arm( brace) touching the bottom of the sash u raised to put the unit in.and the slides on the side of the unit slide over to cover the gaps. i think u would be wise to read the instructions and follow them.

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Q.

A. I use a guy named Tanner , Bill Tanner . I think its Tanner Air conditioning . He has always done a great job for us and never tried to charge for something that wasn't needed. Good Luck

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Q. My friend has a drug problem and needs serious help. I told him to talk to his boss at work, tell him you have a problem and you need help. I wanted to find out what type of policy his company offers, make sure he's covered by them. Does anyone know where I go or who I should call to find out??

A. Your friend will only have insurance coverage if he opted for it on the job application AND after he has been employed for a certain length of time. He can look at the employee manual to find out that time period to see if he has met it. If he has he needs to talk to the HR department about it. As far as finding the type of policy etc...Only your friend can do that. You are not entitled to that information. I work for an HVAC contractor (air conditioning) so I can tell you that they will not give you any private information about your friend. They also will not discuss their insurance policies with you since you are not employed with them.

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Q. So at tech school, they taught me 400 cfm per ton of air. Now that I have my paper and have landed a job with an installation crew, I am learning that cfms vary. I have seen fan speeds set anywhere from 300 to 425 cfms. It seems to depend on ceiling versus floor supply, 1st or 2nd floor, or from one lead man to the next. I can't get the same answer twice out of my lead installers as to the variance. So why the wide variance? I know the slower fan speed will pull more latent heat from the air. And I would suspect that the lower cfm is better suited to ceiling registers. Am I right in this? But why would first or secomd floor matter? I live and work in the SE with high humidity, and a month of peak condition days. Peak conditions are the high 90's to low 100's. These are replacement units in existing housing. I would love to do new construction, no rat poop, no 130 degree attics. And if we upsize a unit, we add more duct runs, not enough in my opinion, but we do add more return and supply.

A. A rule of thumb in air conditioning work is that 400 cfm of air is equal to 1 ton. If 400 cfm of air and a delta T of 20 degrees is achieved, this is equal to only 400X20X1.08=8640 btu/h. However, this neglects the latent heat portion of the cooling load. The latent heat (3360 btu/hr) is absorbed at the coil by condensing moisture from the air. The formula taking into account the latent heat is: multiplied by X (CFM) * ΔT (oF) results in or X*1.08*ΔT Btu/h to get total heat. Another equation is Q = 4.5 x cfm x Delta h to get total heat. What you are taking into account with these numbers is humidity control. Variable speed blower motors are able to start at a slow speed and even delay in starting to give the evaporator time to reach optimum temperature. This assists in humidity removal, but retards the sensible heat removal. The fan as humidity is removed reducing the latent heat slowly picks up speed to assist in the sensible heat removal. You do not have this type of option on a standard three or four speed blower and have to have a compromise between latent and sensible heat removal. Again back to the 400 CFM per ton general rule. Forgetting about sensible and latent heat and just looking at air-conditioning manufacture numbers for air-flow verse BTUH. Approximately 400 CFM of air is needed to be moved across the evaporator per ton of air conditioning. 800 CFM would equal two tons of air conditioning (a ton of air-conditioning is equal to 12,000 BTUH). The above would by manufacture specs give you a 20 degree delta-T. This however, has nothing to do with total heat removal. It is only a number to say how much CFM in general you need per ton of air-conditioning. The air-flow on split systems is determined by the blower capacity in the gas furnace or electric air-handler. Meaning you have to correctly size the furnace not for the amount of heat needed, but for the amount of air-flow in CFM that it can provide for the air-conditioning part of the system. Return and supply ductwork also plays a large part in air-flow and has to be sized to deliver into each space the correct amount of CFM to overcome the heat load for that same space. The return has to be sized to return the correct amount of air taking into account the friction of the ductwork itself and the type of filtering media that will be used. In the end remember furnaces which are where the blower is located in residential split systems are sized by tonnage or blower size (CFM 400 approx for each ton). Example 2 ton, 3 ton, 4 ton, 5 ton, notice there are no half tons in furnace sizing. You find 2-1/2 ton 3/1/2 ton in air conditioners but not in furnaces. You buy a furnace blower sized to best match the tonnage of air-conditioning you are using and adjust the blower speed from there to match half ton sizes. If you have a variable speed blower in the furnace you can then take into account the latent heat removal or humidity and make further adjustments. There is more to it than this, but hopefully this gives you a general idea of the differences between sizing CFM for tonnage or for latent,or total heat removal factors.

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Q. I went to school for hvac got out and started at a company but they started me out as an installer and im not sure if thats the start i wanted to this career i mean if i need it ill do it but what else can i do apartment maintanence or look for a helper position or should i just stay and try to become a lead install and how long would it take to become a service tech from an install?

A. School can teach you the fundamentals, but you NEED hands on experience to learn the things they don't teach you, the tricks of the trade if you will. Besides, isn't installing an AC part of being a tech? There are very few occupations where you can just take what you learned in school and jump into the real world. Most occupations have some form of apprenticeship. Did they teach you how to deal with customers that overlook your shoulder? Code violations you find? Dealing with building inspectors? Getting paid? Dealing with suppliers? Writing up estimates? Did they teach you EVERY cause of every problem in an AC? Have you been taught on every make and model there is, old and new? (I had to read and interpret the wiring diagram on my air handler to the ac tech working on my system that couldn't figure it out). If you're as independent as you think you are, the company will soon recognize your talents, and let you go on to other responsibilities. And just remember, with the economy the way it is, there are plenty of unemployed craftsmen that would be willing to start at the bottom again. Be humbled.

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Q. I work for a heating, air conditioning, electrical, plumbing, and roofing company, and I dispatch about ten people on seven calls a day, and it is exhausting. I take the call (or whoever is in the office does) and gather the customer information. This includes name, address, phone number, city, zip code, how they heard about us (commercial, radio, referral, repeat, etc.), what type of problem they are having (heating, electrical, plumbing, or roofing), what exactly is going wrong, if it is an estimate on a new unit, a service failure, what time the customer called, what date the customer called, when the customer would like the technician to come out (we try to always book them between twelve and four, and save the early times for customers with no other option). The salesman then takes the inbound call sheet over to the dispatch log. I probably should have mentioned that each call sheet has a preassigned number (e.g. 20090001, 20090002, etc.). They match the invoice number on the inbound call sheet to the number on the call log which contains the invoice number, then a place for the sales rep to fill out the rest of the customer information, including customer name, technician assigned to customer's zip code, type of call (hvac, electrical, plumbing), date of call, date scheduled, time of call, time scheduled (am or pm), time completed, revenue collected, and if it was entered into quickbooks, and then if the invoice was given to the technician. This is all if the customer wants the work done on a future date. If the customer wants the work done that day, the sales rep goes ahead and calls the technician assigned to the customer's zip code. He then fills out the call log like normal. Once they have done all that, they give the call sheets to me. I then enter all the information into quickbooks and print out two work orders. I put the call sheets into a plastic sleeve and put those in a binder starting from the lowest work order number to the greatest. Then I put the work order in Steve's folder who gives them to the correct technician. The technician's go out and do the call and collect the money unless it is a credit card. Then I call the customer, get their credit card information, and call the credit card company and charge their card (I am honest enough to be trusted to do this). The checks are deposited every day at the bank after they have been entered into quickbooks. Most of the technicians are paid by salary. I broke my windshield the other day (coincidentally trying to deal with stress from this job), and a company with similar problems came out to fix it, and I was very interested in how they overcame them. The people on the phone took my phone number, name, car type, and schedule me for 12 to 4 pm. the technician who gets paid by the job came out, fixed my windshield, entered some information into his blackberry and connected it to the safegear thing and printed out his receipt and was on his merry way. I called the company (safelite), and tole them all this, and they said to call the corporate office between eight and five, which I will do tomorrow. but fellow workers, will you please help a struggling business and let me know how you dispatch people or how we could improve? Is there any company that has software for this??? PLEASE!

A. Whew, your employer owes you big time for some mental health counseling. The really big firms around here in the midwest use a system that is identical to law enforcement. They carry a small walkie talkie and have radios in their big box trucks. I had a young man check out my heat pump just last week and I could hear the dispatcher talking talking talking. It was a woman and she'd been doing it a long time that was obvious from my first contact. Except she gave him the wrong address and he was driving around for a while until I called her back, she then radioed him right away and I had a delay of maybe ten minutes. We have quite a few one man operations around here and they are Good. The one husband of a friend that I know just gets by with a cell phone, but you don't want to face something like that you have way too many people running in and out. Here's a suggestion: check out temporary employment agencies and ask them what kind of system they use? You might even find a better job who knows? Community colleges have wonderful courses on Business Communication, check them out if you have time and if your employer will pay for all or part of it. This is tax deductible as it's to improve your performance on your job. Then, get online and check out different software companies, there are tons out there who really need the business. A local Nerd would also jump at the chance to get a system customized just for your firm. You really have a situation and I sincerely hope you get some kind of help and soon. Oh, I also know of what you call service plumbing firms in the Miami/Tampa/Cape Coral/Fort Myers areas. These people are really with it but they're in trouble now because the hotels are sitting there empty especially this time of year. Maybe you could check with some hotels or housekeeping managers as to what kind of system they use, but it would depend on how big and busy your area of the country is. Okay, there's lots more but this will keep you busy thinking and maybe alleviate some of your stress. Good Luck!

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