At www.achrnews.com, The NEWS’ Extra Edition page is home to hundreds of online-exclusive service and maintenance, technical, and business management articles. Here are some of the best.
IMPLEMENT A RECORD-RETENTION POLICY
Maybe you think your company is drowning in a river of old paperwork. The more you shred or toss, the better, right? Actually, no. To stay on the right side of the law, every company needs a record-retention policy governing how to keep and discard printed documents and electronic files. Federal and state laws require you to retain records for varying time periods. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and other agencies also have record retention regulations with stiff penalties for noncompliance.
BTU BUDDY 24: LOOKING AT A HEAT PUMP DRAWING A LOT OF POWER
The dispatcher called Bob and told him that a good customer wants his home heat pump checked out. The power bill has risen dramatically in the last two months. It is 28°F outside. Bob arrived at the house and talked to the housewife. She showed him her power bill and it was at least 40 percent higher than the month before. She said that the house has been comfortable, but that the light on the thermostat seemed to stay on a lot more.
MINIMIZING SYSTEM EFFECT
System effect is the negative impact on fan performance that results when the fan is connected to a duct system. Fan curves and fan tables are developed by laboratory measurements with the fan installed under ideal conditions. However, when the duct system is connected to the fan, the fan operating conditions are changed from those of the laboratory and the fan will have a different performance than as rated. An engineer designs a duct system to take system effect into account and to avoid as much system effect as possible.
BTU BUDDY 25: CHANGING A FOUR-WAY VALVE ON A HEAT PUMP
To finish the last job (see Btu Buddy 24), Bob has met Btu Buddy at the job site to change the heat pump’s four-way valve. Btu Buddy asked Bob what he thinks would be the best procedure. Bob said, “We will have to recover the refrigerant, turn off and lock out the power supply, and then remove the top of the unit so we can get to the valve.
Publication date: 12/14/2015
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