What about the ducts?

Over the years I have been called out to a great many heating and air conditioning problems that other companies and other technicians could not solve. Most of those problems, serious in nature, were quite simple to discover. Most of those problems related directly to a lack of airflow across the heating and cooling surfaces of the furnace, evaporator coil and the air conditioner.

So you are probably asking yourself why those other companies and technicians couldn’t figure out a simple airflow issue with the central heating and central air conditioning system. The answer is simple:

They have never gone to school. They have never studied heating, air conditioning and ventilation and they do not have the necessary tools and knowledge to measure airflow.

(The picture shows ducting broken and allowing cooling and heating air to enter the attic as well as contaminating the air in the home with dust and dirt from the attic.)

First we will tackle the schooling.

There are several schools here in Southern California for teaching heating and air conditioning and they regularly graduate straight A students with perfect attendance awards with EPA certification for handling refrigerants (Freon). Unfortunately, these former students know next to nothing about diagnosing heating and air conditioning problems. They do know how to work an electrical meter and the know the basic names and attributes of the devices used for heating and air conditioning, but they know very little about real life heating and air conditioning problems and their resolutions. So their real education begins after they start in the field working on home and commercial forced air heaters and air conditioners.

That is where their education generally stops.

I have seen hundreds of technicians with 10 or more years worth of experience that know little to nothing about the inner workings HVAC systems. Most of these technicians learn what they learn their first year in the trade and then repeat that knowledge year after year. What you end up with is a technician with ten years of first year experience. They do not attend factory update classes. They do not read the trade journals. They do not read the recall notices and they do not invest the needed cash into the proper tools to diagnosis and repair heating and air conditioning systems.

(The picture shows a very dangerous and ill installed ducting system for a horizontal forced air furnace in an attic. The ducting is falling apart and is too close to the furnace vent. If this system was inspected when it was first put in this problem would have been caught b the inspector and corrected at that time.)

About 15 years ago I tried to tackle this problem.

I started my own classes teaching heating and air conditioning. I scoured the contractor book stores, the catalogs and then later, the Internet for books on heating and air conditioning. There is literally nothing but garbage out there. Sure a few books show certain problems and their solutions, sure some have diagnostic charts for certain pieces of equipment, but those all come with the equipment already. They are called the service instructions or service facts. Technicians generally do not even read these blah, blah, blah monotonous instructions.

So I decided to write a book myself.

I called it “Diagnosing Heating and Air Conditioning Problems for the Real World”. I published it and sold it online, taught with it in my own classes to my employees and also taught other contractors here in Orange and Los Angeles County. I even gave the book to the National Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractor’s Association and gave them rights to freely use any part of it they wanted.  I had to make it a part of the payroll here at The Empire Family of Services and it took several years, and more than a few firings, before everybody was on board the learning process. Several years ago I was voted onto the State Board for the Plumbing, Heating, Cooling Contractor’s Association and tried to politically force the Contractors State License Board into requiring continued education for the trades. I recommend a measly 18 hours a year. The state board turned me down fast and furious. They will not implement a program for continued education here in the State of California. As a homeowner, you are at the mercy of state system that constantly tells you they are looking out for your own good while they continually increase your taxes and do little to nothing to actually look after your welfare. I think it has more to do with power than it does with doing the right thing.

So a lack of education and unwillingness

to be educated is the number one reason why your heating and air conditioning problems are either misdiagnosed or the technicians tells you that you should have a new system and it cannot be repaired.

The second reason is shear laziness.

When was the last time you had a heating and air conditioning service technician to your home who actually examined the ductwork? Most of them do not ever look at the ductwork and if it is the summer, heaven forbid going up into that hot attic.

The 3 most important things with air conditioning are:

1. Airflow
2. Airflow
3. Airflow

Let me explain so that you can teach the next heating and air conditioning service technician that comes out to your home what real heating and air conditioning is.

1. Airflow across the firebox (heating) or evaporator coil (air conditioning)

is a requirement. If you don’t have the recommended airflow across the heat exchanger you won’t be pulling the heat off of it and into the home. The firebox or heat exchanger will overheat and shut the furnace down on thermal limit. The firebox will suffer from the enormous expansion and contraction and this can lead to cracks forming and a general degradation of the furnace. A lack of proper airflow across the evaporator coil means that the interior air will not give off enough heat to the Freon in the coil to cool the home. This can lead to the evaporator coil freezing, ice forming, and flooding of the home. The furnace can suffer an electrical short circuit in the motors and the circuit boards as the ice drips water onto them. Lack of airflow across the evaporator coil also gives the same Freon pressure reading as low on Freon so the service technician servicing the air conditioning will add Freon to the system thinking that it is low. This leads to an excessive amount of Freon and liquid slugging in the compressor. The compressor cannot compress a liquid and the valves or rotor will fail. The life span of the air conditioner can be significantly shortened by the lack of airflow across the evaporator coil.

(The picture shows a Rheem firebox that was suffering from toomuch heat brought on by a lack of airflow through the heat exchanger area. The metal fatigues and can melt or crack because of the excessive heat produced.)

2. Airflow through the ducting into the home.

If the ducting is crushed, the air will never reach inside the home. If the ducting is open to the attic, you might have a cool attic, but your home won’t be cool. Study after study has definitely shown that the average home loses about 35% of all of its lost btu’s of cooling and heating through the ducting. And all you really have to do is crawl a little ways in the attic to verify whether or not the ductwork is the proper size, older systems are usually too small, and verify that the ducting is in good enough shape to deliver the airflow to where it needs to be.

(The picture shows a clogged evaporator coil on a central air conditioning system. This system suffered from a lack of maintenance (these must be checked yearly) and a filter that was a "Dogs, Cats and Bowling Ball Variety". If dogs, cats and bowling balls are all your filter will catch, how do you expect it to clean the air you and your family breathe?)

3. Airflow across the condensing coil.

For cooling, there is very little that is so critical to the survival of your air conditioning system than the proper amount of airflow across the outdoor condensing coil. Many homeowners simply let plants grow wild around their air conditioner. They let dogs use the air conditioner as a place to go to the bathroom, urinate. And still more homeowners allow lint from dryers and grass clippings from lawnmowers to clog the coils of that outdoor unit. All of these items restrict or block the air from traveling across the outdoor air conditioning condensing coil. This restriction in airflow across the air conditioner retards the ability of the Freon to release the heat that it gains from the indoor evaporator coil. The Freon heats up and the Freon pressures skyrocket out of control. The higher the Freon pressure, the higher your electric bill, the poorer the cooling and shorter life span that your air conditioning equipment will perform.  This is the main reason that you are required, for maximum life and efficiency, to have your air conditioning system serviced every year.

(The picture shows clogged condenser coils on the outside portion of a central air conditioner. This is a normal regualr problem that can destroy the cooling ability of the condensing unit and lead to very high electrical bills and many breakdowns.)

Most service technicians carry some light tools, Freon gauges and a bottle of Freon up to each home they are working on before even looking at the outdoor air conditioner and the indoor air handler or forced air furnace. This is dead wrong. Most homeowners will automatically scurry the air conditioning technician to the backyard to service the air conditioner just as soon as they arrive. This is dead wrong. Encourage your heating and air conditioning technician to look at the central furnace first, then test for Freon levels.

The furnace or air handler needs to be thoroughly checked first.

Airflow must be verified adequate before ever putting Freon gauges on the outdoor unit. You cannot test for proper Freon pressures and Freon temperatures unless the airflow is correct. The Freon pressure figures that you get would be near meaningless.

If you are working on central air conditioning, mini-split ductless air conditioning, central heating systems or even window air conditioning the way to diagnosis any problem is by diagnosing all the problems and then come up with the most expedient repair or replacement options for the situation. Duct work and airflow are critical to the workings and survival of your central air conditioning and central heating system.

"Some people claim to have outstanding service; other have it. You and your staff at Empire most definitely have it. Our recet expierence with your company proved that in every way. Not only did you come in to correct a situation in which we had been victimized by another company, you helped to reverse our previous bad fortune by helping us to recoup our losses and install a system that was safe and functional. And best of all, you did it affordably.

Our thanks to you, Jim, and your staff for functioning with integrity and cooperation in today's economy. Please feel free to giv eour name as reference to whomever should want to know about Empire."

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Humber

"We wish to take this opportunity to express out thanks and sincere appreciation for the fine and professional job your company and workers did in our home.

The job to install the forced air heating system in our fine 50 year home on Hillvie Road, in West Anaheim; plu insulation. The work has just been completed in a very satisfactory manner.

We would certainly be glad to recommend your company to our neighbors and friends."

Gilbert Pando

"...your staff is obviously well trained and skilled in work, both in installation and sebsequent servicing. We could not ask a more pleasant, reliable service than that which you have provided to us.

We're pleased to have this opportunity to recommend your organization to others, who will find Empire an unusually beneficial establishment."

Robert L. McGrath