2025

2024

2023

Most Important Job

This short tech tip is about something one of my good friends in the trade told me a long time ago, that has stuck with me through the years. It is a simple phrase / mindset. “The current job you’re on, is the most important job of your day”. This...

Cancel This

This post is going to be hard to put into words, it’s going to seem egotistical at points, but know that my actions / feelings online are the same as they are if you met me in person. The problem with online interactions is tone and other subtleties...

Hope

This is a piggy-back article off of The Struggle article that I had recently. I was a bit of a “Debbie Downer” in that article, which is okay, I get that way sometimes. In this article I’d like to take a minute to layout some of the things that give...

Heat Recovery Chiller

This is an article that I wrote back in 2020, but I don’t believe that I published it anywhere, so I’m doing it now. I did discuss this on this episode of the HVAC School Podcast. Heat Recovery Chillers I have always had a love and passion for...

You Should Learn Markdown

This is a quick article about why you should learn markdown. What is markdown Markdown is a “mark-up” language. It allows you to write content in plain text that can be easily converted to other formats, such as html, pdf, docx, and many more. All...

The Struggle

This is a get stuff of my chest article. Probably going to be a mixture of ranting and whining. If that is not your cup of tea then feel free to skip this article. The struggle It has been one of those “when it rains, it pours” type of weeks. As...

Free quotes != good

I found myself re-reading the ACCA Quality Installation Standard recently and it got me thinking about the industries tendency of offering free quotes. In this article, I’d like to just focus in on the items that are required as what I’m calling...

Introduction to Programming for HVAC Part-4

This article builds upon our last article, so make sure to catch up before continuing with this article. Arguments Before we start creating our program that will remove the background from images let’s go over arguments in shell scripts. Arguments...

Introduction to Programming for HVAC Part-3

In this article we will put together some of the pieces from the last 2 articles, and build our first program. If you have missed the first articles, then you can catch up here before continuing with this article. Getting Started We are going to make...

Introduction to Programming for HVAC Part-2

In this article, learn about installing a package manager. If you missed it, check out the first article in the series where we learned about using your terminal. This article builds upon that foundation. What is a Package Manager A package manager...

Introduction to Programming for HVAC Part-1

This is part one of a series of articles to help HVAC technicians (or others) get started in developing their skills to program. This can help to automate everyday tasks or just familiarize themselves with some of the tools used by programmers. Why I...

Calculate SEER Degradation by Age

This is a quick tech-tip to learn how to calculate the degradation of SEER based on age. The degradation of SEER is due to fouling of the evaporator coil with dirt and refrigerant charge losses. It should be noted that this is not true for all...

Introducing Psychrometrics CLI

Today, I’m releasing a command line application that is built on top of my swift-psychrometrics package, that I open sourced over 2 years ago. The application consists of many calculations / conversions for psychrometric properties of an air stream....

Dehumidifier Sizing by Latent Load

This is a quick article to show how to calculate the size of dehumidifier needed based on the latent load of a building. This is useful if you’ve done a load calculation and know the latent load of the structure. Formulas The formula above is used to...

Why Mini Splits Stink

In this general article, I explain why I don’t generally like to use mini-splits. The Positive Sides When people say mini-splits, in general we mean “ductless” style units. These can either be high wall, floor mounted, or ceiling mounted consoles....

Pounds of Water Removed

This is an article that shows how to calculate the pounds of water removed from an air stream, given the entering conditions (return air stream) and the outlet conditions (supply air stream). This is useful in the field when you want to calculate the...

Coil Bypass Overview

This is the first article in a series that explores the idea of a coil bypass strategy in an HVAC system. This article introduces you to a coil bypass strategy at a high level, future posts will dive deeper into the features, benefits, as well as the...

Rss Feed

In this article I will show how to add this site’s rss feed. In particular, we will be using NetNewsWire as the rss reader. What is an RSS Feed An RSS feed will show you new posts, generally from a blog, without having to remember to check the...