John Oaks

It’s always good to reaffirm some of the basics of energy, work, and matter. The five rules below are some of the most basic and important. The First Law of Thermodynamics States that energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only change forms or be transferred from one object to another. If you’d like […]

Condensate overflow prevention devices, or float switches, as they are often called, are such simple devices that you wouldn’t think there would be much room for controversy. In my experience, there are few areas of the trade where technician and installer preferences and opinions vary greatly. Let’s start with some float switch basics. Float (condensate) […]

I once heard someone say, and I have since repeated many times, that BTUs ride on the back of cubic feet of air (CFM). As I’ve learned more, I’ve come to the conclusion that the weight or mass of the air passing over the evaporator coil is far more important to understand both in terms […]

Eric Mele, Eric Kaiser, and John Oaks come on the podcast to talk about commercial PM best practices and what matters most. Drain cleaning is a critical part of the standard commercial PM. You must assess the drainage situation (pitch, length, location, etc.) to plan your cleaning strategy and arrive at the best result: the […]

In today’s podcast, I talk to John Oaks about his experience as a VRF tech in the field, including branch boxes and two-pipe vs. three-pipe technology. John primarily works on the troubleshooting and service side rather than the installation and programming side of the field. Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems, also called VRV systems when […]