Bob and Tim were on their way to a service call with a new customer. When they got to the job, the customer explained, "The unit was not cooling and I had a company come out for a service call. The unit seemed to work OK last week when it was a little cooler outside, but this week it has warmed up and the unit is not functioning as well."

Your troubleshooting situation involves a standard natural gas, induced draft, hot surface ignition system furnace. This is a new installation that has been accomplished in anticipation of the upcoming heating season, and the problem is that during the initial start-up the unit did not perform properly.

Bob and Tim were on their way to a no cooling call; in fact, it sounded like a heating call. The customer has a bonus room on the third floor that used to be attic space. When Bob and Tim arrived, the customer told them, “The bonus room upstairs seems much too hot and the air coming out of the registers is hot to the touch.”

Live Active Leisure needed to replace its existing system due to the legally imposed phaseout of HCFCs in the United Kingdom. Johnson Controls proposed the installation of an air-cooled ammonia chiller complete with heat recovery and a very low ammonia charge due to the location being close to a pedestrians’ footpath.

Save up to 15 percent on electricity costs with these simple preventive maintenance tips for cooling tower. Routine maintenance also helps to conserve water and extend the operating life of cooling equipment.

Bob and Tim were getting set up to clean the condenser tubes in a chiller. They were doing this job at night during overtime hours because they discovered the problem earlier that afternoon and the customer said the chiller needed to be able to operate at full capacity tomorrow for a conference.

This month’s troubleshooting situation involves an air-to-air package unit heat pump that is approximately six years old, and the customer’s complaint is that, rather than providing cooling, it’s just blowing warm air.

Bob and Tim were on their way to a no cooling call at an office building with a 100-ton water-cooled chiller. As always, management was in a hurry to get the problem solved because the tenants were hot.

PVC is hailed as a wonder material, and in many ways it is. However, the possibilities are not endless. PVC has its limits, especially in HVAC applications. PVC sometimes makes sense for heating and cooling applications — other times, it doesn’t.

Alpine Mechanical Services has announced the completion and results of a collaborative energy efficiency study on rooftop units conducted by Alpine Mechanical, Siemens Industry, and Nexant. The study tested the efficacy of HVAC preventative maintenance best practices in a retail environment.