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3 Bad Techs Who Don’t Know It
Three Steps to Deliver a Trades Education Talk
HVAC Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future
Upgrading Time & Temperature Defrost with Demand Defrost for Heat Pumps
Coil Temp Sensors: Thermostats vs. Thermistors
Cabinet Leaks in Air Handlers & Fan Coils
Planning and Installing Condensate Drain Lines
Tandem Compressors and Their Efficiency Benefits
Why the Breaker Size May Be Lower than the MCA (and Why That’s NOT Necessarily a Code Violation)
Symposium – What is the House Trying to Tell Me?
Don’t Die! w/ Louise from UEi
Heat Exchanger Crack Comment – Short #280
Dehum Innovations and Essentials w/ Nikki K.
Lifetime of HVAC/R w/ John Pastorello – Short #279
Vapor Injection + Modulation Innovation w/ Copeland
TXV vs. EEV – Short #278
Electric Heat Talk w/ Bert
Gas & Combustion Safety w/ Bert
#hvac
Tech Tips:
First, let's state the obvious and clear the air a bit. The photo above is SUPER CHEESY! But this story is about three bad techs who don't know it, so a photo of three models clearly posing in clean clothes makes as good a proxy for a bad tech as anything else. First off, I'm not […]
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This article detailing the three steps to deliver a trades education talk was written by David Richardson from NCI. David is an excellent educator with lots of public speaking experience under his belt, and he has shared some great tips to help people share their valuable trade knowledge. If you have any questions for him […]
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There have been many adaptations of A Christmas Carol over the years, but it all started with a novella written by Charles Dickens in the 1840s. It was early in the Victorian Era, fresh off the heels of the Industrial Revolution. The British were reflecting on past Christmas traditions, like caroling, and exploring new ones […]
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Since heat pumps work by extracting heat from the outdoors to bring it inside, the outdoor coil will almost surely freeze up. To mitigate the freezing, heat pumps enter a defrost cycle in which they run in cooling mode to send hot, high-pressure refrigerant back through the outdoor coil and melt the ice. While the […]
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‘Tis heating season once again. It’s getting colder outside, and the heat pumps are starting to frost up outdoors. The defrost cycle helps get rid of the frost, and there are a few different ways we can do that; the methods themselves may differ between systems (time & temperature vs. demand defrost), as may the […]
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When we think of air leakage, a few common scenarios probably come to mind: disconnected ducts at connections, poorly sealed connections, and air leakage around vents are ones we’ve mentioned quite a bit in tech tips and videos over the years. However, there are a few that we haven’t really talked about, particularly for fan […]
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The condensate drain is the source of many a service call in Florida. A lot of the time, the problem is just a clogged drain; bacterial zoogloea (drain snot) loves humidity, and the all-aluminum coils don’t do us any favors. Other times, there are some clear drain design or installation flaws that present hazards to […]
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This tech tip about tandem compressors was inspired by the recent HVAC School podcast episode with the Copeland team. You can listen to that podcast episode HERE. One compressor is great, but how about two in the same circuit? Or three? We see multiple compressors in rack refrigeration circuits, but the concept isn’t as common […]
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This HVAC system we recently installed has been causing quite a bit of trouble for us with inspectors. If you look at the label, you will see that the breaker size is 25 amps, and the minimum circuit ampacity (MCA or wire size) is 29 amps. The MOCP (maximum overcurrent protection, max fuse, or max […]
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Videos:
Podcasts:
Join Chris Hughes and Adam Mufich at the 7th Annual HVAC/R Training Symposium as they interview building scientist Tessa Murray. In this eye-opening conversation about what your house is really trying to tell you. Discover why HVAC techs need to understand building science fundamentals to truly master their craft. What You'll Learn: The critical […]
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In this episode, recorded live at AHR Expo 2026, Bryan sits down with Louise from UEi Test Instruments for an in-depth conversation about one of the most underestimated dangers in the HVAC trade: carbon monoxide. Rather than treating CO as just another checkmark on a safety list, Bryan and Louise dive into the full […]
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In this short podcast episode, Bryan responds to a comment we received about cracked heat exchangers and how they were characterized in a recent combustion safety podcast episode. In reality, heat exchanger cracks counter the effects of the inducer motor. The inducer pulls air through the heat exchanger, but a crack causes the inducer […]
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In this live episode recorded at the AHR Expo 2026 Podcast Pavilion in Las Vegas, host Bryan sits down with longtime friend and industry expert Nikki Krueger of Santa Fe and AprilAire. Nikki brings over 15 years of experience in indoor air quality and whole-home dehumidification to the conversation, having started her career with […]
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In this short podcast episode from AHR Expo 2026, Bryan sits down with John Pastorello for a discussion about the latter's lifetime of HVAC/R. John was a chemist and an HVAC technician before founding Refrigeration Technologies in 1987, and he received the HVAC Tactical Lifetime Achievement Award in 2026. Prior to entering the trade, […]
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In this live episode from the AHR 2026 Podcast Pavilion, Bryan sits down with Copeland's Josh Souders (Manager of Commercial Unitary Product Management) and Jeff Kukert (Compression Senior Technical Trainer) to dive deep into Enhanced Vapor Injection (EVI) technology and its transformative impact on HVAC systems. This conversation offers both technical professionals and industry […]
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In this short podcast episode, Bryan breaks down the differences between a thermostatic expansion valve (TXV) and an electronic expansion valve (EEV). He highlights their strengths and weaknesses. In the basic refrigerant circuit, the metering device drops the pressure. TXVs and EEVs are both metering devices that cause the liquid refrigerant to drop in […]
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In this informative episode, host Bryan welcomes guest Bert for an in-depth discussion on the often-overlooked but critically important topic of electric heat in HVAC systems. The conversation takes listeners through both the common and uncommon issues that arise with electric heat installations, offering practical insights drawn from years of field experience. Bryan and […]
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In this informative episode, Bryan and Bert dive deep into gas appliance safety and combustion analysis from the unique perspective of Florida HVAC technicians. While they humorously acknowledge that Florida's mild winters mean they don't work on gas furnaces daily, they make a compelling case that this actually makes their training even more critical. […]
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