Tech Tips

The way we use and think of refrigerants is evolving quite rapidly. As we shift towards phasing out ozone-depleting refrigerants and considering alternatives, the future of refrigerants may seem a little uncertain to us. However, one thing is certain. Many HVAC units will continue to rely on the common HCFC, HFC, and HFO refrigerants we […]

Even though there will almost surely be a healthy demand for HVAC service businesses, any service business is still at risk of going under. Most of the trouble comes down to money mismanagement or misunderstanding. The good news is that the risks are avoidable with proper education and care. We aren’t accountants or lawyers, but […]

Many techs may not all know what SEER exactly means or how it’s calculated, but we know that it exists, is regulated by the government, and has something to do with efficiency. SEER is the standard efficiency rating of central air conditioning systems, and its values are determined from a controlled set of testing conditions. […]

Fundamentally, three-phase, alternating current motors are about as simple as a motor gets. The power company produces three phases by spinning magnets. Then, on the other end, we produce electromagnets that spin the motor according to the same 60 cycles per second frequency (60hz). All three phases are 120 degrees out of phase from one […]

This article is primarily based on HVAC School’s “Drain Cleaning – More To It Than We Think,” hosted by Bryan Orr and featuring Corey Cruz and Mike Klokus. You can listen to that episode HERE. How hard could it be to clean a drain? The slime should just wash away if you flush the drain […]

Let's get through all of the jargon and get to the point as quickly as possible. These ratings are a calculation of how much energy you have to put into a system to get a BTU of heating or cooling out. Simple. But the problem is that each piece of cooling or heat pump equipment […]

This article is based on HVAC School’s special video for 100k subscribers. The episode features Eric Mele, Andrew Greaves, and Sam Behncke as special guests. To celebrate HVAC School’s 100,000 YouTube subscribers milestone, we've released a video on a topic that applies to all sorts of HVAC techs. Customers don’t like making callbacks, and we […]

I received an email from a podcast listener with some furnace-related questions. Based on the nature of the questions, I figured it would be better to ask an experienced furnace tech. Benoît Mongeau agreed to help by answering the questions.  My name is Matt and I am a newer tech (fully licensed this September, have […]

Most of the content in this article is based on Alex Meaney’s contribution to the HVAC School podcast in the October 2nd, 2020 episode: “How to Get The Most From Online Education,” which you can listen to HERE. Attending a class from your bedroom or home office sounds very convenient, right? That was probably what […]