The first point to understand about refrigeration theory is that heat is energy, and it can be made to move. If enough heat is removed from a glass of water, the water will freeze to ice. When that heat is allowed to move back into the ice, the ice will melt.

Bob and Tim are on a service call on a really cold and blustery day. The temperature is 27°F, the wind is blowing, and it’s snowing and sleeting. When the customer called, she said that their home is getting cool inside, and their heat pump is running all the time with the temperature dropping inside the house. They arrived at the front door, talked to the homeowner, and decided to look around. They went to the closet where the indoor unit for the heat pump was located and determined that the heat pump itself was not running, only the fan and strip heat. 

In this troubleshooting problem, it’s the middle of July, and you are the follow-up technician on a callback. The original complaint was a “no cooling at all” call, and the technician who preceded you on this job (we’ll call him Technician #1) has only limited experience, but he reported correctly that he found a failed transformer and replaced it. 

Bob and Tim have had a big day at work — it’s 3:30 in the afternoon, and they are done for the day. They’re having coffee at a local restaurant, talking about their careers when Tim asked a question, “What is a ton of refrigeration, and why is it called a ton?”

Whether the commercial refrigeration equipment you’re working on is a small under-counter refrigerator, a keg refrigerator, a large walk-in freezer, or a transportation refrigeration system, many of the technical concerns will be the same.

Bob and Tim were on their way to a no heating call. When they arrived, they looked at the house and saw that it had a package unit. They talked to the housewife and she told them that the unit stopped running sometime in the middle of the night last night.

In this troubleshooting situation, the equipment that needs servicing is a condensing gas furnace in a relatively small home of approximately 1,200 square feet. The capacity of the unit is 40,000 Btu and it is equipped with an LED readout system.

Bob and Tim were checking a customer's air conditioner and initially thought the unit must be out of refrigerant or very low on refrigerant. But after adding some refrigerant, the suction pressure did not rise at all. Bob then determined they should look for restrictions in the liquid line or the suction line.

No matter the type, properly designed, specified, installed, and maintained humidification systems can provide years of trouble-free operation. Taking a proactive approach to humidifier maintenance is the single best way to prevent operational issues and unscheduled humidification system shutdowns.

Bob and Tim were at a customer’s house doing a seasonal checkup on a condensing gas furnace. This was routine service carried out every year on this customer’s equipment per a service agreement. But when they tried to operate the furnace, the burner would not light.