By Charles W. Kaupp, TBE, CxA January 2023 Southern Independent Testing Agency, Inc. Reviewed by Brian Kaupp, Eric Jenison, John Kneiss and Curtis Smart To some older technicians, this article could be a shot from the past and to younger technicians, may say what are pneumatic VAV boxes? To start with, the following items are notes, which relate in general …
Closed Loop Water Make Up / Expansion Tanks
If you are about to perform a test and balance on a Chilled Water Closed Loop system, my advice, don’t start it without knowing the piping system is full of water and free of air, unless you don’t mind wasting time. Go to the roof, open some vents, if you don’t get water, without air, then begin. If you get …
Reading Air Velocity
By Eric T Jenison, NEBB past President & FEBB Past President Having proctored over 100 practical exams one observation seen constantly, is a lack of understanding of how to properly read air velocity to obtain the CFM present. It is a straight forward process that is not performed correctly very often. Here is a little history lesson: when starting in …
Flow Hood Calibration
Is my flow hood in calibration? It was calibrated with the last year! By Eric T Jenison, NEBB past President & FEBB Past President The following information is based on my experience with Shortridge Flow Hoods. Flow hoods have been around since the mid 60’s in various forms. Flow hoods are a device that reads airflows from various air outlets …
Flow Devices and Hand Wheel Settings
by Brian Kaupp, TBE — Southern Independent Testing Agency Having a general understanding of flow devices or balancing valves is important for the Owners, Architects, Engineers, and Mechanical Contractors. Simply put, it is specified and installed to set a flow (gpm) to a predetermined value, which is best determined by utilizing a digital hydronic meter to measure a pressure drop. …
Fan and Pump Issues
by Charles W. “Chuck” Kaupp Over the years of testing, it has amazed us how often equipment test results, from a fan or a pump, do not follow the performance curves. In the last few years, two unusual issues arose, relating to an exterior wall mounted kitchen hood exhaust fan and a small 30 GPM circulator pump. Problem Issue #1 …
Pump Gauges
Location, Location, Location by Brian C. Kaupp The location, as well as the installation, of pump gauges has been a problem in the HVAC industry for years. There is a lack of information on proper installation and the understanding of why the location of the pump gauges is extremely important for evaluation of the performance of the pump. When evaluating …