The Heating & AC Blog

Boomers get confused about things sometimes, so I like to verify all information, especially when it comes to the HVAC business and my future in it! It turns out Pedro was right, and that HVAC techs were highly in demand thanks to COVID making everyone think about the air they breathed

When I was about to graduate high school I had a couple of major decisions to make. I was overwhelmed by the enormity of what I was supposed to decide – do I try and find a job, or do I take the plunge and go to college? To me college felt like a huge gamble, because of how expensive it was, and with no guarantees. On the other hand, the only jobs available to a high school graduate were menial, so what was I supposed to do? My Uncle Pedro told me about attending trade school, and how learning a trade like HVAC work could give me a big leg up on a great career. I listened to him, and then immediately went on Google to verify a lot of what he was saying about the HVAC industry. Boomers get confused about things sometimes, so I like to verify all information, especially when it comes to the HVAC business and my future in it! It turns out Pedro was right, and that HVAC techs were highly in demand thanks to COVID making everyone think about the air they breathed. I learned that I could study HVAC work in night classes, and work in the industry during the day to get a little experience. I wouldn’t get rich, of course, but I could potentially make enough money to pay for my HVAC classes, which means when I graduated I would have zero student loan debt, and start working as a full time HVAC tech right away! Props to Uncle Pedro for giving me good advice!

 

radiant floor heating

We got this house at auction, after it had been foreclosed upon by the bank.

Whoever lived there was a hoarder, and the place was packed with garbage and old newspapers.

Of course, we got it at the auction, so it came as-is, and anything that needed to be removed, repaired, or remodeled would be my responsibility. I expected there to be a lot of work involved. After all, I got a three bedroom, two bathroom house for twenty thousand bucks, and for a deal like that you know there will be work involved. The first step was cleaning the place out, and of course I tried to turn on the air conditioning to cool me down while I worked. The A/C worked very well, much to my surprise, but the air quality went in the gutter as soon as it started to blow. There was something dead in the ductwork, and turning on the fans only blew the stink around the whole house. I took the grates off of all the air vents, and found that a great many of the ducts had been stuffed with garbage. The garbage in the air ducts attracted bugs and rodents, one of which had perished, so now the entire ductwork system was rancid and rotten. I did my best to clean out the air ducts, but I could only do so much. After I had gotten out the bulk of it, I had to call in an HVAC tech for a professional deep-cleaning of all the air ducts and air vents.

 

hvac contractor

One of the most difficult parts of the HVAC install that I did for my house was figuring out if I should mount the condenser unit to the house or put it on a platform. I finally determined that if I wanted my condenser unit to be on a perfectly level surface, it would be best to pour the concrete and make a platform to place it on. I made the container for the concrete with wood and poured half the concrete first and let it set. Then I put support bars on top and poured the remainder of the concrete so the concrete wouldn’t break. I actually did a pretty good job and I was happy that it was totally level when I was finished. Taking care of the rest of the HVAC installation seemed like a breeze after I got all that out of the way. Of course, I have to admit that the electric hookups made me feel nervous. I kept thinking about the old cartoons I would watch when I was a youngster and how they would be electrocuted all the time and would either be obliterated to ashes or they would be a fuzzy mess. I didn’t want to be electrocuted, but I just took care of everything very carefully making sure the power was shut off while I was working. It was a little nerve wracking even though I checked to make sure there was no voltage in the lines while I was connecting everything. I was so happy when everything worked when I turned everything on and I opened the line sets to let out the compressed refrigerant. The new system has been working like a charm and I’m so happy that I was able to save so much money on this DIY project.

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Something that I thought was strange was the fact that there are DIY ductless mini split systems available for purchase, yet the HVAC professionals charge a great deal of money to install these systems.

When watching various ductless mini split installations, it took most people between 3 to 5 hours on the installation.

I figured if I did such an installation, I would just take my time even if it took a whole week. Of course, it didn’t take nearly that long when I finally got the HVAC equipment delivered to my house. I got to work on the installation right away because I was excited to get it working. The installation was actually kind of fun and I’m being honest. I certainly can see the appeal of becoming an HVAC professional for a living because it’s not bad work. Still, I already have a good job working from home, so I was just interested in saving money, not necessarily doing this for a living. Anyway, my buddies were impressed with the installation when I showed them. Of course I knew they were going to ask if I could hook them up and help them with their own HVAC installations. I asked them if they were ready to forfeit the HVAC warranty because I had to remind them that I was no professional. One of my buddies pointed at my new HVAC and said that was definitely professional work. Regardless of that fact, it still means nothing for protecting the warranty because I never went to school to become certified. I did end up agreeing that I would help my friends though, and they were glad to hear that.

 

boiler installation

My wife used to work at a bakery and honestly she made some of the best food ever! Of course I knew that because of her home cooked meals, but she learned so many different recipes at the bakery and she honestly made the food better than anybody else could.

• When customers would go to the bakery they would always request her.

She always said she would only work in the deli portion of the bakery though when the temperature control settings were just right. A lot of the time, the boss would not provide enough cooling in there so it would become way too overheated. He wanted to save on the energy bills and everybody hated that. But it was different when my wife was working, he let her crank the cooling system as much as she wanted because she attracted a lot of customers to the place to make big time sales. Eventually though, my wife said she wanted to start her own business. She took all her savings and also acquired a business loan and put everything into her own bakery business. She told me that I had to help get the perfect HVAC system for the place so that they would be comfortable. She said to make sure the HVAC system was energy efficient and she gave me a budget to work with. I ended up working with some friends to get a powerful ductless multi split system. We installed the system on our own and it actually wasn’t difficult. Fortunately one of my buddies is a certified professional too, so nobody could say it wasn’t installed by a certified expert. The system has built in air purification and it’s one thing that attracts a lot of customers. But the main thing is my wife’s cooking, everybody can’t get enough of it!

Heating and cooling equipment

One of my favorite places actually has a UV air purification so they always have the best air quality

There was a time when I ate too much fast food, same with my family. I never liked the way I felt after eating that garbage food. I think it’s because they add all kinds of harmful ingredients, and I heard they even load their french fries with sugar. That’s not good if that’s true, but I’ve been told it’s to keep people addicted to their food and sugar is one of the most addictive things on the planet. Well, I started keeping away from that stuff and focused more on grilling at home. I made my own patties and added all the right seasonings and I realized that it was far more enjoyable than any fast food burger I could make. We also got high quality hot dogs that are great on the grill. Other than that, I cooked chicken, steaks, and ribs occasionally. It turned out it was good I was cooking more on the grill too because it made it less overheated in the house. It would always become so overheated in the kitchen while cooking and all the heat made the AC system struggle a lot to keep the house at a reasonable temperature. Also if I didn’t feel like grilling, my family and I would go out sometimes to a restaurant where they had good climate control. One of my favorite places actually has a UV air purification so they always have the best air quality. My wife and children really love their shakes a lot, so we always get shakes whenever we go to this place. I love their burgers though. They are quality burgers with amazing seasonings, but they still aren’t as good as mine.

Dial thermostat

We ended up hanging out all the time and of course we watched football together regularly, because we loved talking trash! Still, we all appreciated the sport and that’s the most important thing

When we moved to a new home, we moved to a place far out of town. This is where we had just one neighbor across from the house we purchased. My wife and I were surprised when our neighbors came over to greet us. They even baked us a batch of brownies, but we didn’t realize that they were pot brownies at first. Of course, they told us they were pot brownies and they used cannabis from a local cannabis store. They said they never used poor quality anything when they made something with cannabis. My wife and I were actually excited to try the brownies and we all tried some together while we got to know one another. We got into talking a lot about football and while I told everybody my preferred team, it just so happened that my team and my neighbor’s team were rivals. I was talking trash on his team saying that their QB cheated over the years and I didn’t care how many times he won the Superbowl. He was saying that while my team seemed to be getting better, they would never achieve a Superbowl win. Even though we were all talking trash, we managed to get along very well. Whatever they put in those brownies, they were really good and I can’t remember laughing so much before. We ended up hanging out all the time and of course we watched football together regularly, because we loved talking trash! Still, we all appreciated the sport and that’s the most important thing. Also, my neighbor helped me with something major, he helped me install a ductless mini split system in my home so I could have greater comfort without an expensive HVAC professional installation. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to install the HVAC system and it provides so much comfort and gives us lower energy bills.

hvac unit