Inside Lucas Oil Stadium

This is a picture of the floor of the stadium taken from the press level. Notice the size of the

truck in the left side of the picture. There will be some seating above the level this picture is taken at. I think it will be hard to distinguish players numbers or find the football from here. I guess that is what the JumboTron TVs are for.

Inside Lucas Oil Stadium

Here is a picture I took last week inside Lucas Oil Stadium. Construction is progressing very well. This facility will be very nice when finished. The picture is looking north. The skyline is the view of the city that will be visible when the stadium ends are open. The beam on the floor is about 1/4 of one of the roof trusses. Notice the size compared to the size of the workers. There are 2 ironworkers on top of the beam.

Humidifer Tune Up

If you have a humidifier October/November is a good time to do maintenance. The water panel should be changed at least one time per year. Some humidifiers require more frequent replacement. Consult your owners manual for recommended change interval. Be sure and clean the water containment area. It is an ideal condition for bacterial growth. If you have respiratory problems consider the Honeywell brand water panels with Agion coating. They are slightly more expensive. They are treated to inhibit bacterial growth inside the humidifer and are available for most brands of humidifers.
Do not forget to check the strainer located in the water supply line. If it is clogged up the humidification process will be impeded.
Click on link below for humidification products.
http://shortyshvac.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=85

Fall Furnace Tuneup

Cold weather is approaching so now is a good time to take a look at your furnace to be sure it is ready for winter. If you have a gas furnace check the inside of the flue pipe for any sign of soot. Soot indicates a potentially dangerous issue so if there is soot in the pipe be sure and have the furnace checked by a professional. Check the flue for any restrictions. If accessible birds will build nests in a flue pipe.

With the power off check the blower wheel for items that might have been sucked in and making the wheel out of balance. If belt driven check the belt for weathercracks and proper tension. Check the bearings in the motor and blower for any play. There should be be no play parallel to the shaft. In and out is okay. Up and down is not. Now is a very good time to change the air filters.

Next mix up some dish washing soap with water in a spray bottle and spray the gas pipe to be sure there are no gas leaks. Pay special attention to unions and gas cocks. Gas cocks are packed with grease and over time it hardens and cracks.

Next start the furnace and take a look at the flame. The furnace should have either end shot burners or ribbon burners. A ribbon burner is a long skinny burner that extends into the heat exchanger. The flame should be blue and very crisp with a well defined inner cone. The flame should not deviate when the blower is on and should not burn down around the burner.

The flame should also be blue on an end shot burner. An end shot burner is short and the flame burns at the end of the burner and extends through a flame retainer plate into a round tube. The flame should extend into the round tube heat exchanger and not roll out around the plate. It should not change when the blower comes on.

Pay attention to the draft inducer and make sure it is not noisy. Noise may indicate a potential bearing failure. If you have a 90% efficient furnace with PVC flue make sure the drain lines are clear and open.

Spare parts I recommend you keep on hand are a flame sensor and ignitor. If either part fails you will not have heat. They are both simple to change. The most common ignitor for a Carrier, Bryant or Payne furnace is P/N LH33ZS004 and the most common flame sensor is LH680014.

Feel free to email me at mike@shortyshvac.com or leave a post if you would like to verify any parts you may need or if you have a question about your furnace.

If there is any doubt have the furnace serviced by a professional.

Click on link below for parts for Carrier, Bryant and Payne furnaces.

http://shortyshvac.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=10&sort=20a&page=3

July update.

View of the new Lucas Oil Stadium under construction looking east from the parking lot of our office.

Refrigerant 101 Part 2

See Refrigerant 101 for the start of this explanation.

If we have a way to collect the refrigerant and put it back in the drum we would have a refrigeration system. This is accomplished with a compressor. When the refrigerant leaves the coil we were discussing it travels through a line as a low pressure vapor into a compressor that compresses the refrigerant into a high pressure vapor. When it is compressed the temperature will be much higher than the outdoor air temperature.

It then travels to a condensor coil as a high pressure superheated gas where it will be cooled by blowing ambient air across a coil. As the refrigerant gives up heat into the ambient air it will cool and condense to a high pressure liquid. This high pressure liquid will be metered through a metering device (much like the regulator we discussed earlier). As it passes through the metering device it will change to a low pressure liquid.

This drop in pressure will cause a drop in temperature of the liquid refrigerant. The low pressure liquid will travel to a coil and the temperature of the refrigerant will be less than the temperature of the air being blown across the coil. The refrigerant will absorb heat from the air causing the air temperature to drop and the refrigerant to boil and change to a low pressure vapor.

The low pressure vapor will become superheated and return to the compressor and the process will begin again.

Refrigerant 101

A property of refrigerant that makes it useful to air condition a house or building is the ability to read the pressure of the refrigerant and know it's temperature. Refrigerants will change from a liquid state to a vapor state at a very low temperature. If you control the pressure of the refrigerant you can control the temperature it changes state at.

For example, a drum of liquid R-22 at 80 degrees will change from a liquid to a gas and the pressure will increase as the gas expands. When the pressure reaches around 143 lbs, the boiling will stabilize and as long as the temperature remains constant the pressure will remain constant.

If the drum is moved to a cooler area the pressure will be affected. If the new area is 60 degrees the refrigerant gas will condense back to a liquid and the pressure will drop. When the pressure reaches around 102 lbs the condensing of the gas will stabilize.

If you connected a regulator to the R-22 refrigerant drum and allowed liquid refrigerant to pass through it into a coil and set the regulator at 58 lbs the coil temperature would be controlled to 32 degrees until you ran out of refrigerant. If you blew 75 degree air across the coil some heat in the air would be absorbed by the refrigerant and the air temperature would drop.

More later.

Understanding Simple Thermostats

The basic terminals on a thermostat are R G Y and W. The wiring should be color coded R for red, G for green Y for yellow and W for white.

R is the terminal coming from the transformer that is powered all the time. The thermostat is actually a group of switches designed to energize different circuits. R is the main power source. The G terminal receives power from R and energizes the fan circuit when the fan switch is turned on. When the fan switch is in the automatic position G is connected to the Y terminal. Y is the terminal that is used to turn on the cooling circuit. The Y terminal is connected to the R terminal when the Heat/ Off / Cool switch is in the cool position and the temperature has risen above set point. This energizes the cooling circuit and the fan circuit.

The W terminal is used to energize the heating circuit. When the Heat/ Off/ Cool switch is in the heat position and the temperature has dropped below setpoint R terminal is connected to the W terminal and the heating circuit is energized. On a typical gas furnace the fan is energized from a temperature switch that senses the temperature of the heat exchanger or a timing mechanism in a circuit board that senses power on the W terminal.

Some thermostats have other terminals. The most common are RC and RH which are used if you have a system with seperate 24 volt power supplies for heating and cooling. If you have 1 power supply the RC and RH must be jumpered together. Another teminal is C. It is used to connect the other terminal on the transformer if this particular thermostat requires a common wire for operation. One other common terminal is O or B and is used to power the reversing valve for a heat pump.

This is a view of the front of the new Lucas Oil Stadium for the Indianapolis Colts. This is looking east from just outside our front door. Picture taken 5/1/2007. It looks like about 1/4 of the steel for the roof is in place.

Cleaning the condensor coil.

Spring is a good time for cleaning out the outdoor (condensing) unit. Shut off the power and wash out the coil with a garden hose. This will improve the efficiency of the unit and extend it's life. Be careful not to get the fan motor wet. While the unit is off look at the fan blade and motor mounts. Make sure there are no cracks or breaks. The normal place for the blade to crack is around the rivets that attach the blades to the center of the fan. A broken blade or motor mount can cause severe damage to the coil. Be sure and allow the unit to dry out overnight before restoring power.

Welcome To Shortys HVAC Supplies

Since summer is rapidly approaching now is a good time to make sure your A/C unit is in proper operating condition. Change your air filter. While you are at it make sure the condensate drain is flowing freely. A plugged drain can lead to wet feet or an expensive electrical repair. Many times a circuit board will fail due to getting wet from a plugged drain. If you have a belt on the blower you should check it while changing the air filter. Make sure the power is off. Be careful not to overtighten the belt. If it is too tight it will ruin the blower motor bearings or blower shaft bearings. Take a look at the copper lines around the evaporator coil and make sure they are not rubbing on each other. Copper is a very soft metal and holes rubbed in lines are a very common source of refrigerant leaks. Be sure and run the cooling and make sure it is working properly before the temperature goes up and the service guys are not answering their phones because they are overworked.
Click on link below for air filtration products.
http://shortyshvac.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=80