Purge Your Hoses

By July 10, 2017

The title says it all. It should be one of the first things you learn when you started. However, I have seen a lot of experienced techs who seldom (if ever) do it.

When connecting to a tank, purge your hose by cracking the center connection at the manifold for a second.

When connecting to a system, crack each connector for a second and then tighten. (Unless you are using ball valves or low loss of the same refrigerant type.)

Low loss brings up a different subject. If you are using them, you need to make sure not to switch between refrigerants without recovering all the refrigerant from your gauges.

Both air and incorrect refrigerant are not acceptable to add to the system, even in small quantities.

—Bryan

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HVAC School – For Techs, By Techs

Real training for HVAC ( Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration) Technicians. Including recorded tech training, interviews, diagnostics and general conversations about the trade.

Dr. Allison Bailes from Energy Vanguard joins the podcast to answer the age-old question: do houses need to breathe? He also talks about his new book, A House Needs to Breathe… Or Does It? You can purchase that book directly through the Energy Vanguard site at https://energyvanguardstore.com/ or on Amazon.

HVAC professionals can benefit from learning about building science because there is a lot of overlap between the two, and an HVAC technician who knows about building science can set themselves apart in the market.

In short, Dr. Bailes doesn’t think a house needs to “breathe,” especially if a house brings in low-quality air, especially humid air, through gaps and cracks. Some people also use the term “breathe” differently; some may be referring to leakiness, and others may refer to drying out a house. It is necessary for a house to be dry, but we want to make sure that fresh air is controlled.

If you build a home tightly, you have to ventilate it correctly. We have to control air, liquid water, water vapor, and heat. Heat is especially complicated, as it has three different ways of moving and can come in sensitive and latent varieties. One way of controlling those is through control layers like vapor barriers, though these aren’t always needed; we must understand the vapor flow to determine if a vapor barrier is necessary.

Dr. Bailes and Bryan also discuss:

Energy Vanguard’s resources
The chapters of “A House Needs to Breathe… Or Does It?”
IAQ – filtration, humidity control, ventilation, and source control
Challenges with attic air
Dr. Bailes’s book-writing process
The HVACR Training Symposium and other events w/ Dr. Bailes

Keep up with Energy Vanguard, read the blog, and subscribe to the weekly newsletter at https://www.energyvanguard.com/.

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