HVAC Specialists Career Guide and Counseling

Question: hvac specialist? I'm temporarily doing some work for the company i work for. I have alot of experience in heating and cooling but mostly residential. I'm working on 10 ton heat pumps that are 20-30 year old. It seems like all the units that are even running good are running about 350 lb of discharge pressure. Is that normal considering the age. I've cleaned condensor and evaporator and checked air flow. Any advice would be great. I would like to take this job but all these old units are really hard to keep up with. thanks

Answer: What you wanna do is to check to see if you have restrictions on your filter dryers. check to see if you have temperature differential across the filter dryers. Check super heat and subcooling. Note that throughout the time and time of use and history of maintenance and moisture inside the ac units is going to have higher pressure on your hi-side. You can also perform a triple vac. make sure to go to 500 microns on a vacuum before you break the last vacuum, and then obviously charge the unit back up again. I think is cheaper to replace the ac units with 410a refrigerant instead. On the long run it will pay for itself since the R-22 is not going to be around for production on 2010. right? good luck.

Question: HVAC+yahoo group? I want a website where HVAC specialist share their experiences

Answer: http://www.hvac-talk.com there ya go, its hours of fun

Question: Why does a burst of hot air blow out before cool air when I turn my home AC on? We have checked all of the duct work and it is all connected. Looking for any suggestions before contacting an HVAC specialist. Thanks

Answer: Because the air that has been trapped in the ducts is heated up, and that is the first air that is blown out. This is completely normal. There is likely no problem. As long as the cool air starts coming out pretty soon, there is no need to worry.

Question: HVAC company owner here about to get screwed? One of my custom builders has built this one house over and over again at least 25 times over the past four years, and on one particular house there has been mold spotted near some of my registers. I have met with the home owner, builder and mold "specialist" and we have all come to a conclusion that the blown in insulation had not filled all the cavities around the buckets in the attic. All great and grand for me all we had to do was take all the old duct, buckets, plenums, coil and heater out and replace it all. They get all the prices together and send them to the insulator and he refuses to pay the back charge because he didn't see problem before it was fixed. Now my builder has turned on me and I am afraid I am about to get back-charged for crap that I didn't do. Does this suck or what? I guess that’s why I have to carry liability insurance even though it’s not my fault. Has this kind of junk happened to anybody else out there?

Answer: Too late now, but I have learned over the years to document, document document! I take digital pictures of EVERY project I get involved in, before and after, and write down notes whenever anyone makes a commitment. This may slow things down a bit, but it has been my salvation many times. People just have a tendency to remember things in the way that most advantageous to them - it is just human nature, and is not an indication that anyone is trying to cheat you. You have my sympathy, and the best you can do is make sure you learn from the experience, so that this expense won't be repeated!

Question: Can you earn money while in school to be an electrician? Also, I was trying to find out if anyone knew the difference in how many months/years of school to be an electrician or hvac specialist.

Answer: You certainly can get a part time job after school in either area Electricians are licensed by the county in most sates. The regulation and requirements would therefore vary.I am not sure if HVAC requires a license other than one as a general contractor

Question: What is the starting salary for HVAC specialists? I will be looking for work in California. Thanks.

Answer: 55000