Hvac School - For Techs, By Techs

In today’s podcast, Jim Bergmann talks about troubleshooting the entire system. He takes a holistic approach to the art of troubleshooting, NOT just an equipment-centered one.   According to NIST, the most common HVAC system problems are duct leakage, refrigerant undercharge, and oversized equipment (often for undersized ducts).   Duct leakage heavily affects the envelope; the equipment only plays a part in conditioning a space. As such, you will want to seal up holes that lead to unconditioned spaces, such as behind the thermostat, to avoid creating negative pressure. When there is that negative pressure, especially close to the thermostat, the home could be at risk of over-cooling.   We check that the filter is clean, but we rarely ever question if the filter is good enough for the home. If the filter does not do a good job of improving air quality, you may consider changing the filter type or reducing the air velocity.   Even though we take temperature and pressure readings from the outdoor units, we somet