Bob and Tim were driving to a service call where the customer’s complaint was that her home’s windows were sweating excessively. Tim asked, “What could be some of the reasons that a customer’s windows would be sweating?”

The correct placement and installation of the thermostatic expansion valve (TXV) sensing bulb is important to its overall performance and reliability. An incorrectly installed or placed sensing bulb can lead to several different types of system problems. Here are some general installation concerns and tips to follow when installing a TXV.

Humans simply can’t absorb new processes as fast as they become available. And newer recruits have even less time to learn old procedures and new techniques at the same time. Machines, however, have that capability.

It was the first really cold day of the winter and Bob and Tim were on the way to a service call on an oil burner. The customer said that they had no heat. It was about 15°F outside so they were in a rush to get there.

In this troubleshooting situation, you are responding to a customer’s complaint about their heat pump, and you’re not the first technician called in to solve this problem of “not keeping the home comfortable and running a lot.”

Bob and Tim were at a retail store and were preparing to do a routine service call on a 5-ton heat pump. It was a fall day with a temperature of about 50°F when they turned the heat pump on. After doing a visual inspection at the air handler, they moved to the roof to give the outdoor unit a visual inspection.

If you’re in the home performance industry, you know how essential your equipment is to your job. One small mistake can result in incorrect air tightness readings. To help home energy raters receive consistent test measurements, here are three tips to ensure your air tightness tests are accurate every time.

Bob and Tim were called to a heat pump problem where the homeowner said the unit was icing up in her basement. When they arrived, the housewife met them at the door and took them down to the basement and said, “This is not normal. I have never seen ice down here on these lines before.”

In this troubleshooting situation you are dealing with equipment that has only been in operation for two months. And during that time frame, the customer has complained that at times the box temperature is higher than it should be, but the unit then seems to recover and freeze OK.

Bob and Tim were on their first service call of the winter season. A customer wanted them to perform service on their furnace to make sure that the unit was in good working order for the winter.