Mastering HVAC: Beyond the Thermostat

[Paul Rhodes] (0:02 - 30:15) Hey there, this episode of the Maintenance Mindset, we continue what we started on last episode, the fact that air conditioning is more than just a number on a thermostat. Not only that, we have a quick thought for a maintenance mindset from my dad, right after this message from our sponsor. Appwork is one of the founding sponsors here at the Multifamily Media Network.

Much more than maintenance, Appwork is advanced business intelligence. Streamline maintenance workflows and keep an eye on the leaderboard as your service teams enjoy the gamification of maintenance. Visit appworkco.com and transform your productivity today. Now, before we get started talking about air conditioning, I would like to take a moment and talk about why we need air conditioning. The answer is kind of simple. It's summer.

That means it's hot. High, high temperatures. And before we move on about the equipment, let's talk about the people.

By people, I mean our maintenance technicians. Our teams right now that are servicing air conditioning equipment are working in conditions that are considered dangerous. Often, it's not only the temperature, it has to do with humidity, which is why, if I can take just a moment and talk about a real quick tool before we get talking about air conditioning, there's an app put out by OSHA and NIOSH that helps us as technicians determine what we need to be concerned about when we're talking about our own health.

The app is called the Heat app. It has an icon that looks like a red square with a yellow sun in the middle of it. And I use the Android version.

I'm almost positive it's on the Apple store, the store that that operating system uses. But here, I just pulled up Orlando, Florida, for a city. And what it does, for those of you who are on camera, you can see that right now in Orlando, Florida, it's 92 degrees Fahrenheit and 52% humidity, which means it feels like 100 degrees.

Not only that, the great thing about this app is it actually gives you symptoms and hourly outlook of what's supposed to happen. Not only that, first aid that can be done, precautions that you and I need to take when we are out in the field dealing with these dangerous conditions. If you are working on a piece of air conditioning equipment and it's hot outside, not only that, if you are sweating profusely and you're still feeling hot, do yourself a favor and take a break.

Get out of the sun. Get somewhere that has a slight breeze. Don't go crazy and drastically change your outward body temperature.

You can send yourself into shock. Take care of yourself. The air conditioner will get fixed faster if you are conscious.

If you lose consciousness due to heat stroke, it's going to be even longer for that air conditioner to get fixed. Take care of yourself. Hydrate.

Drink lots of water. Not only that, be sure that you have Gatorade at your property and watch out for each other. If you're on a team, pay attention to those who are around you.

It is hot right now in the summer of 2024. Which is why air conditioning is a hot topic. And it's a topic that I'm continuing from episode number 12 of The Maintenance Mindset.

So if you haven't heard that, we're going to pick up where we left off. We're discussing the fact that air conditioning is more than just a number on a thermostat. As a matter of fact, the air conditioning equipment was designed to provide comfort, which is made up of four areas.

Those four areas are temperature, moisture, or humidity, air circulation, and air filtration. Now, all four of those areas possess the ability to be expressed as numbers. And I know kind of the title and the heading of this is that it's more than just a number on a thermostat.

But we are talking here about numbers, about science, and specific things that we've got to be aware of. Now, I do find this funny to be talking about because, quite honestly, I'm not a math guy. My daughter reminds me quite frequently when she was in school that I would sit down with her and try and figure out math.

And I made the mistake or the blessing of letting her know that it actually took her father two years, four semesters, to pass one semester of Algebra 1 because I'm not a mathematical thinking guy, which she finds hilarious because so much of my job now deals with math. I mean, being an instructor for the Certified Pool Operator course, I teach math, and yet I'm not really very good at it. So when I say that air conditioning is not about numbers, I'm not saying that it's not about math, but that you don't have to be good at math in order for numbers to be used to express what we have going on.

And what I mean by that is the reality that a lot of air conditioning is expressed in mathematical terms. You see, we're not talking about calculators. No, we're not going to be doing algebra, and I'm not worried about what x is.

In essence, we're using math to deal with comparisons. And also, we're using math or numbers to get very specific about what we're talking about. Because when we're dealing with air conditioning, ultimately, it's physics being applied to our living spaces.

That's what air conditioning is all about. And physics, like a lot of parts of science, is measured in mathematical or numerical terms. So we begin with the fact that we are talking about temperature, and temperature here in the United States is measured in Fahrenheit degrees.

That's what's on the thermometer. But actually, the thermometer, that just gives us a value, warmer or cooler. And we use those numbers to tell us if the temperature is rising or if the temperature is dropping.

But that number Fahrenheit is not the equivalent of heat energy. You see, when we're measuring Fahrenheit, we are measuring the quantity of heat energy in a substance, but we're not measuring heat energy itself. Heat energy itself is measured in BTUs, or British thermal units.

And it's important for us to understand there is a difference. There's a distinction between the two terms. Now, they are related.

In other words, if I have more heat energy coming into a space, then the temperature is going to rise in that space, so the Fahrenheit is going to go up. If I have heat energy leaving a space, that means the heat energy is going to decrease, and that will be reflected in the degrees of Fahrenheit that we see on the thermostat. The reason why this is important is because your air conditioning equipment doesn't move Fahrenheit.

It moves BTUs. This all has to do with thermodynamics, and there are three laws of thermodynamics that we end up having to deal with. The second one we've actually talked about in previous episodes.

You know, my standard saying of entropy is job security. That is a direct outline of the second law of thermodynamics, which means we go from a state of order to a state of disorder. In other words, energy, all energy, doesn't disappear.

It actually goes or heads towards chaos. In other words, entropy. What that means for heat energy is that per that second law, heat will always and only go from hotter to less hot.

From hot to cold. Now, that word cold, that's an interesting word. We'll come back to that here in a minute.

Because when we begin talking about heat energy, we have to understand it in terms of BTUs. Our air conditioning equipment is sized by the amount of BTUs that it can move over a period of time. And it's actually translated to tonnage.

You may have heard or seen in your supplier catalogs that when you purchase an air conditioning system, it is sized by the ton. And one ton of air conditioning equipment refers to the fact that this equipment is designed to move 12,000 BTUs per hour. That essentially comes from the fact that one BTU, or British thermal unit, is the quantity of heat energy required to raise one pound of water by one degree.

So, if I was to take one ton of water, 2,000 pounds of water, it would require 128,000 BTUs to melt one ton of ice. 128,000 BTUs. Now, if I wanted to melt that ice over a day, over a 24-hour period of time, I would need to remove 12,000 BTUs of heat per hour in order to completely melt that 2,000 pounds of ice.

That's where we get the terminology of tonnage when we go to purchase air conditioning equipment. Now, that tonnage refers to the quantity of heat that we're removing from a space. In other words, a one-ton unit has the ability, when it's functioning correctly, to remove 12,000 BTUs from an apartment.

With this in mind, it makes sense that if I've got a larger apartment, greater heat load, greater amount of heat that I need to remove, I need a bigger system in order for this to happen. That's where we get into the ton-and-a-half or two-ton unit. One ton possesses the ability to move 12,000 BTUs of heat per hour.

A ton-and-a-half is 1,800 BTUs per hour. A two-ton unit is 24,000 BTUs per hour, and so on, all the way up. The reason why it's important for us to begin here goes back to being a maintenance technician.

We are maintenance. We didn't build the building. We did not construct the enclosure.

We didn't determine how many windows are going to be put on and what kind of windows there are. The reason why that's important is because the building was already here before we took over responsibility for keeping the building, keeping our asset functioning. Somebody who ever built or designed the building, we have to believe they did their job correctly.

And to correctly do that job, that means that they had to look at heat load calculations and determine that based on the physical location of where the building is, where it faces, the expected amount of shade, and the expected amount of days above a certain temperature that will occur for the longitude, latitude, and sunlight that this particular building will get, there will be a certain amount of heat load placed not only on the building, but based on how many windows and walls and interior spaces and let alone cooking and how many people are expected to live there and the conditions inside a normal expected apartment. We have to be able to remove a certain amount of heat per hour.

What that means is maintenance technicians, property managers, regionals, if we have a resident that is complaining about the fact that it is very, very hot inside their apartment and they want a new air conditioner or an air conditioning system has reached the end of its life and it needs to be replaced. Do not increase the size of that equipment. It was designed to deal with a certain type of equipment.

One of the big reasons why is dealing with moisture. We talked about that a little bit in the last episode that if we remove the heat too quickly from a space, the system doesn't run long enough in order to maintain moisture We want that moisture level to be maintained low enough to provide comfort and to prevent that four letter word that we don't want to have anywhere around our buildings, especially inside. So we want to have an understanding of why it is we are maintaining this equipment.

Now, how do we apply this? I recognize that we spent some time and we got a little bit farther into the weeds and specific information. Let's talk about application and how we apply this to day to day life.

First, heat always moves from hotter to colder. That means this time of year, it's hotter outside than it is inside. Therefore, heat will always be trying to go from outside to in.

Now, in the winter, it's the opposite. It's colder outside. Therefore, we're losing heat from heat inside to out.

Second, we use air conditioning equipment to balance the scales. In the summer, our air conditioning equipment takes heat that is inside and pushes it outside. It does that using that second law of thermodynamics.

We'll talk about that in the next episode, a little bit greater depth. But suffice it to say, the fact that heat always moves from higher temperature to lower temperature, that's how the temperature inside our apartment is constantly trying to go up in the middle of summer. But our air conditioning equipment uses that same law of physics.

The fact that heat moves from higher temperature to lower temperature in order to carry the heat from inside to outside so that we get that nice cool air on our face and on our breeze. So that law of physics is how the equipment in the system works. So the application.

First, keep your air conditioning equipment operating at peak efficiency. No matter how efficient, how well you fix it, if it is a one ton system, it's only going to move 12,000 BTUs. But if we have problems, the coil's dirty.

If residents have blocked vents. If the filter's clogged. If any of the reasons, you will decrease the amount of BTUs that you can move, meaning the temperature will rise faster inside the apartment.

So the first thing for takeaway, preventive maintenance is worth it. Keep the coils clean, change the filter, be sure that all the vents are open, ensure that all the windows are as closed and the weather stripping around the door does work because we're managing heat here. And if the windows are failing, that means the heat load comes in.

That brings me to the second one. Blinds and even better, curtains work wonders. Keep that thermal radiation from the sunlight, the light, the heat from the light of the sun, keep that out of the apartment.

If the curtains are closed, that's going to decrease the amount of heat that comes into the apartment, which our equipment has to remove out. In other words, if I go to a resident's apartment and they're complaining of the fact that the blinds open, there's no curtains in there and they happen to be a south facing third floor apartment. Then on hot days like what is being experienced right now down in Orlando, there's going to be more heat coming in than what your air conditioning system can remove.

More BTUs coming in. If you've got a one ton system and you've got 14,000 BTUs coming in and your system is only removing 12,000 BTUs, that means the Fahrenheit temperature on the thermostat is going to go up. This is why we have to begin with a little bit of math.

After this word from our sponsor, we're going to talk about how we can apply some mindset issues. And not only that, we're going to have a quick thought about some math from a person who's not good at math. That's coming up right after this word from our sponsor.

Our sponsor today is Appwork. Best known for exceptional maintenance workflow management, Appwork offers so much more. Optimize operations with its advanced business intelligence that turns data into strategy.

Simplify your operations with Appwork's intuitive platform. Service team members love the gamification of maintenance workflows and leaderboards. Make everyday tasks a competition for number one.

From property management to team communication, Appwork has you covered. Visit appworkco.com today. We just got finished talking about math and the fact that air conditioning is still more than just numbers on a thermostat.

And I recognize I did maybe go a little bit further into the weeds, so to say, with math than what I may have intended to at the beginning. But it is important for us as technicians and even for decision makers on site to be aware of numbers and how they work and how they intersect with each other. If for no other reason than terminology, if I can make a recommendation or just bring awareness to a resource, Goodheart Wilcox Publishers produced a book a few years ago by Gary Xavier called Math for HVACR.

And this book, for those of you who are looking on video, you can see it. Uh, if not, it is, I'll say it again. It's called Math for HVACR by Gary B.

Xavier. It's a book that's designed as a workbook to put into practice what today's quick thought for a maintenance mindset is actually about. The nice thing about this particular book is it's a workbook.

It does go through terminology and have exercises and experiments that you can do in the practical world as opposed to just keeping numbers on a page. I mean, there is even a section in here that I refer back to quite a bit when I'm dealing with electrical repairs. It goes into Ohm's Law and talks about that specific information.

So it does provide some actionable, good exercises that we can do. Now, today's quick thought for a maintenance mindset actually comes from my dad. Well, not directly from my dad.

You see, he passed away over a year ago and very slowly my brother and I have been going through his books and things and my dad is, I've talked about it before, he is one of the smartest, most wonderful individuals I've ever met in my life. And let alone, I'm honored the fact that he was my dad. Well, he had this book that I'm amazed because my dad was not a mathematical guy, but he had this book called Plain Trigonometry by Heinemann.

And the book is way above my head. And I mean, it goes into cotangents and logarithms and intrapolating cosines and stuff. I don't understand any of it.

But actually, the quick thought for today comes from the note to the student. And as I was going through here, it really stuck out to me that it does remind me a lot of my dad in the fact that the note to the student, this is even before the book begins, and it says, the mastery of the subject of trigonometry requires a certain amount of memory work and a great deal of practice and drill in order to acquire experience and skill in the application of the memory work. The reason why that applies to having a maintenance mindset is that a maintenance technician has to have some fundamentals in the theories of how things work, meaning in order for us to do our job, we have to have a sense of what is expected to happen.

Now, in mathematical circles, that's done by formulas, and you learn what those formulas and relations are, and they're expressed in numbers. But what that quote strikes out to me the biggest amount is that just rote numbers can only get you so far. You have to put them into practice.

You have to, as the quote says, gain experience. That is an encouragement to me that if it's in trigonometry, maybe I need to start working on some of these formulas and writing them down and practicing so that I can apply and get better in math. The foreword actually goes on to say that the benefit of trigonometry is fostering independent thought.

The whole reason to have a section of the show called Quick Thought for a Maintenance Mindset is to take an unrelated thought and apply it to multifamily maintenance work. So here's the application. We can learn what we should and shouldn't do.

We can even follow and read the instruction manuals on the piece of equipment that we're working with, a faucet or what we've been doing, air conditioning equipment. And we can read about how it's supposed to work, but that's only up here. It actually requires us to initiate practice, take our hands and put them on the piece of equipment, take a tool and put it with it.

There's only so much we can learn out of a book. I'm a big proponent of books. There's only so much we can learn from online or e-learning, which there is things we can learn from online.

However, no amount of watching videos or no amount of interacting or playing simulations will ever prepare us for taking our hands safely and in an orderly fashion and actually physically practicing those skills over and over again until we begin to master them. And that's where in trigonometry, we get to independent thought. In the role of apartment maintenance, we get to the ability to begin to prevent entropy where we started.

We prevent things from breaking down to a state of chaos, and that translates into better service for our residents. Thank you for spending your time with me today. I appreciate you following along on this path or this trail to learning about air conditioning equipment.

Have a great day, and I'll see you somewhere. Thank you again to Appwork for sponsoring today's episode. Imagine carrying a digital make ready board in your pocket with work order tracking and maintenance technician leaderboards designed to gamify the process and bring out your team's competitive best.

Appwork offers solutions to headaches that have plagued the multifamily industry for decades. Visit www.appworkco.com today.