Do it yourself Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

[ultrarunner]

My background and degree is Industrial Engineering... with some time spent on the shop floor of a tool and machine shop and a hobby starting around age 12 when I restored my first car... a Model A Ford... had a car and too young to drive.

The early 80's were not a great time for manufacturing in California... the shop where I worked and all of our competitors are long gone.

Around that time I bought my first home as it was scheduled to be condemned... turned it around and had fun doing it and it was lucrative... bought more property, renovated and kept some for rentals.

Just by happenstance, the local hospital was having issues with the emergency power system... a friend told the CEO she knew someone that could fix the problem and I was called in... the CEO was impressed, took my information and said to see her if I ever needed a job...

About a year later I got a call saying they were building a new medical center and needed someone to be the owner's agent during the construction and I accepted.

Never had given medical any consideration before... turned out to be a good job and I was asked to stay on after completion as Engineering Director... lots of changes over the years and doing more with is the new reality as many Hospitals struggle to stay open.

Multitasking or wearing lots of different hats is very common place... just as out sourcing was in the 80's. This year I completed training and started to work in patient care in the operating room with some of the state of the art medical lasers...

That aside... HVAC is on now on the table as costs to maintain the older equipment increases and budgets decrease... hands-on seems to be where we are headed.

I've been ask to take over the HVAC PM's and some repairs.

100,000 surgical procedures during my tenure and never a cancelation due to a problem with the building or equipment.

As others have mentioned... a good HVAC journeyman comes after years of experience and I will never have the time to reach that level.

All things said... the thing I look forward to is seat time on the one of the tractors making improvements around the homestead...

 

[ultrarunner]

Been a rough month for my HVAC contractor on the job.

The new Carrier 50 ton condensing unit went in ok as did the 12,500 cfm air handler and new reheat hot water boiler and pumps.

Thought all was good but under warranty had to replace one of the four compressors, control circuit board and last night a Schrader type valve let go and 40 pounds of 410a vented…

Glad it’s under warranty is all I can say.

 

[2manyrocks]

Guessing inexpensive valve sourced from china failed….?

Our power company replaced the 20 year old power transformer at the house after tree fell on it. The replacement lasted 6 days.

 

[ultrarunner]

I’m starting to hear trades grumbling attributing failures to supply chain issues affected by pandemic.

 

[2manyrocks]

You started this thread asking if you should get cert. to DIY. I guess you are pretty glad you werent the poor guy who installed this system and had these failures right off the bat?

 

[grsthegreat]

Sometimes i hate AC Units. My 5 year old ac outdoor unit compressor quit operating a few days ago. I opened it up and only read 4 amps draw on a 5 ton unit. Called my buddy whos an ac guy. He drops by next day (amazing in this hot spell) and stupid ac unit is working just fine.

Like the car that works fine after taking it to dealer.

He said pressures are correct, cooling rate is correct.

Im baffled . All i know is it wasnt working the day before. Theres not much to these basic residential ac units.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^
Could it have just frozen up? My brother's refrigerator quit last month. He unplugged it for a few days, plugged it back in and it's working fine.

 

[Sigarms]

Guessing inexpensive valve sourced from china failed….?

Give me one expansion or reversing valve that isn't made in China...

 

[ultrarunner]

Yep… I’m very comfortable around analog equipment up into the 90’s but everything today is laden with circuit boards and proprietary software…

Only 2 things would shut down the old 50 ton unit… low oil or no power.

The new unit has 2 full pages of trouble and alarm codes…

You started this thread asking if you should get cert. to DIY. I guess you are pretty glad you werent the poor guy who installed this system and had these failures right off the bat?

 

[grsthegreat]

^^^^
Could it have just frozen up? My brother's refrigerator quit last month. He unplugged it for a few days, plugged it back in and it's working fine.

Might have…not sure. I replaced the filter. All i know and am grateful for now is its working again. I asked the tech if there is a low/high pressure compressor kill switch like i have in my truck, but he didnt know.