I just handle the scheduling; wife is the real HVAC shop boss

Going from house to house to repair central heating and cooling devices can be rather challenging.

Whenever people meet my wife and I they are amazed that we have a happy marriage and we work together. People always assume that it is going to be terrible to have the same place of employment as your spouse. I understand why they might believe that, because it can be rather stressful to work together every single day. However, we do a good job of compartmentalizing our marriage and our business dealings so that they don’t overlap and ruin either venture. I think it helps a great deal that my wife and I have a unique set of skills which we both bring to the business. Honestly, she is the boss of the entire organization and I’m just along for the ride. This is probably the opposite of what most people expect when they hear that we operate a highly reviewed heating, cooling, and air quality control dealership. Don’t get me wrong, working in the HVAC industry is very challenging. I was a certified heating, cooling, and ventilation specialist for over 15 years before I met my wife. During that time, I certainly realized that there are ups and downs in the air quality control industry. Going from house to house to repair central heating and cooling devices can be rather challenging. Interacting with a shop full of certified HVAC workers can also be difficult and full of drama. That’s why I let my wife handle our indoor air handling control specialists. She manages the team of HVAC workers, the finances, and the advertising for our HVAC dealership. Meanwhile, I just answer the phones and schedule the repair appointments.

air duct cleaning

People skills are as important as technical skills

As a professor I worry a lot about this next generation of adults who are coming up right now.

It seems like they have been massively affected by the influx of technology in our modern world.

I don’t understand how these kids are ever going to grow into real functioning adults when they are so reliant on cell phones, computers, and the internet. Don’t get me wrong, I think that technology is extremely important and useful in many aspects of life. However, it has also trained our kids to be more adept at interacting with screens than other human beings. As a professor in the local heating, cooling, and ventilation certification program at our trade school I really worry about the personal skills of our future HVAC technicians. When my pupils graduate from the heating, cooling, and air quality control program they will be certified heating and cooling technicians who are technically capable of entering the air quality control industry immediately. They can get a job at any HVAC repair shop as soon as they graduate. However, I’m worried that they might have the practical skills to inspect, maintain, and diagnose HVAC equipment but they seem to be lacking the personal skills to interact with residential HVAC owners. An important part of the job is conversing with the clients who request the HVAC repairs in the first place. If we have completely socially inept HVAC technicians entering the workforce they’re going to have a hard time finding out what the air quality complaint is and collecting the bill at the end of the repair appointment. I don’t know if we’re making successful HVAC techs, at that point.

 

ventilation

I got sent to the boss’s house for an HVAC repair

Sometimes it’s really difficult when people want to challenge you in life. I feel like there are a lot of humans who want to test others to make sure that they live up to certain expectations. This is definitely the case when you’re starting to date somebody new, when you are applying for a job, and when you are dealing with difficult relatives. For me, I have been most majorly impacted by my employers consistent desire to test my practical skills in our specialized field. You see, I work as a heating, cooling, and ventilation technician for a large indoor air quality control corporation who tends to hire their HVAC workers directly out of the heating and cooling certification school. Because they always want to hire the youngest kids in the heating and cooling industry, they are also always trying to test us for practical skills in repairing and servicing are handling devices. They want to make sure that we actually know what we’re doing with forced air furnaces and air conditioning systems before we are on the job and giving them a bad name for faulty HVAC repairs. I understand their concerns, but I am quite tired of their sneaky tests in practical air quality control management. Most recently, I was frustrated after being sent out to an AC repair job which was apparently a test of my air conditioning knowledge. The owner of the shop sent me to his own house to inspect his cooling system after reportedly experiencing hot and cold patches all day. After hours of toiling at the AC unit… I found out it was all a test. There was nothing wrong with the cooling system.

 

website

Terrible power grid means my thermostat is constantly reset

When I moved into the city I had no idea that there would be so many challenges.

It’s hard enough to live in a new place when you don’t know anybody or have any family around.

It feels very lonesome and scary at times. It can be even worse when you live somewhere that suffers from routine power outages because of poor infrastructure planning on the city’s part. This is what I deal with on a regular basis living in my current residence. I never would have expected that we would lose power as often as we do. Unfortunately, because we live in an extremely hot and humid climate this means you are often sweating through your sheets and praying for the electricity to return. When you lose air conditioning power on a hot and humid day there’s nothing worse than waiting for the energy to be reinstated. For me, the inconvenience is larger than waiting for my air conditioning system to start back up again. In fact, every time we lose power I lose my entire air temperature control system. My smart thermostat is not particularly fond of these abrupt power outages. Every single time our energy is cut off to the house my central thermostat resets itself so that I have random factory air temperature control settings. Half the time we get our power back in the middle of the night and my furnace starts working instead of my air conditioning system. I’m always standing in front of the smart thermostat, resetting all of my temperature control programming and waiting for the stupid power to go out again.
a/c representative

Mom puts off HVAC repairs, but complains nonstop

I come from a family that incrementally acts incredibly tough or is wildly complaining about every single thing.

You never know what kind of a day you’re going to have until you start communicating with my family members.

On Monday they might tell you that they are strong, capable, and undeterred by every challenge in life. By Tuesday they will probably be complaining about their job, their health, and even the way the wind blows. It’s a continual back and forth between rejecting their problems and wallowing in them. This is why I was not surprised when my mom started complaining about her central heating and cooling devices a few weeks ago. I knew that her central air conditioning system was at least 15 years old because I remembered when the professional HVAC dealership came out and installed it. I also realized that her forced air furnace was well past its prime because the heating system existed when we moved into our house. When I recommended that she called her local heating, cooling, and ventilation dealership to arrange a professional maintenance appointment or repair service my mom simply shook her head. She insisted that she could get by with the heating and cooling devices as they were. She didn’t need to pay any expensive costs for a certified air quality control specialist to inspect her ancient HVAC devices. My mom insisted that her indoor air quality control system was not that important to her to shell out the money. That’s what she said one day, but every conversation we’ve had since has been about her terrible air quality.

more about air conditioning

Neighbor gave us window AC in emergency

Apparently he heard our concerned discussions about the cooling system, because he came walking over with an AC window unit in hand 5 minutes later

I’m really glad that we live in a good neighborhood where we can rely on our neighbors for help. The other day when we lost power it was a massive help when our neighbor allowed us to come over and shower at his place. He even let us take food and water from his refrigerator until we could get our own power reinstated. It was very kind of him and it made us a lot more comfortable in the sweltering hot and humid climate that we have been dealing with all summer. Of course, we should have known that our indoor air handling troubles were over with. Even when we had energy at our house again the air conditioning system would not work. That’s when we realized that when we lost power we also had an energy surge fry our expensive central cooling device. Suddenly, it was looking like we were going to have weeks of unmanaged indoor air quality before we could afford to hire a professional heating and cooling technician for a repair service or a full air conditioning replacement. Obviously, we were devastated at the thought of living in this oppressively hot environment without any air conditioning control indoors. Again, this is when our neighbor stepped up and saved our butts. Apparently he heard our concerned discussions about the cooling system, because he came walking over with an AC window unit in hand 5 minutes later. We have been limping along with the AC window unit installed in our bedroom for some indoor air temperature control. Until we can afford a new AC unit, we will be relying on my neighbor’s kindness.

a/c professional

Tired of garbage clogging my AC unit

When I moved to these parts I thought that life was going to be a lot easier.

I was getting out of the conflict-laden South, where social issues seemed to be a real problem. I was happy to be moving closer to my family and looking forward to having more social support in my immediate area. Besides that, I was excited to get away from the burning heat and humidity that fills the air every single day. Down in the South, you have to operate your central cooling system all day if you want to have a livable residential home. You really can’t rely on overhead fans, box fans, or other forms of ventilation. Without a cooling system, you are doomed to be sweaty and uncomfortable all day long. The other problem is keeping your air conditioning system safe. Because I lived in a region with extremely tall and robust trees there were constantly branches coming down and breaking my AC unit. When I got up north, I was excited for the open space that could keep my AC system free of falling limbs. However, I didn’t expect that all of this open ground would result in garbage rapidly blowing across the plains and collecting against my AC unit. My cooling system is just as prone to breakdowns in disrepair now as it was before. It’s constantly being clogged up with empty bags, pop cans, and assorted plastic pieces. Now, I can’t even use a metal air conditioning cage to keep it safe… The garbage is so pervasive and the wind is so strong that my cooling system is always at risk.

air filter

I worked in a biology lab; your UV purification isn’t working

It’s pretty funny to me that people prefer to listen to advertisements over experts.

Companies can put out any piece of written or video garbage and people seem to lap it right up.

If they do bother to check their facts, I feel like they would rather side with the corporation who’s out to make a buck off of their purchases rather than listening to the people who have years of experience in the field. At least, that seems to be how it is with my family and their extremely strange views about indoor air quality. Since this pandemic began, my family started going overboard with their indoor air quality concerns. I understand why you would want to make sure that you were breathing high quality indoor air as much as possible, but there are certain things that aren’t going to make a big difference. But doesn’t stop my family from purchasing expensive air filters, air purifiers, filling the air ducts with cleaning products, and buying UV light disinfection methods. It’s the last two air scrubbing policies that really don’t work. From my years working in a biological research lab, I can tell you that UV light is not the best way to disinfect your air. A brand new UV bulb can kill microscopic toxins, organisms, and airborne contamination. There is no doubt about that. However, UV lights quickly lose their powerful disinfection capabilities over time. Working in the lab, I had to oversee the ventilation in controlled fume hoods. If we had a UV light in use for air disinfection, the bulb had to be replaced every couple of months. I know for a fact that modern HVAC companies developing their air purification systems with UV lights are not advertising this to their customers. If they are, my family definitely isn’t listening.

 

geothermal heat pump

Other people check the stove; I check the HVAC

I nearly died that summer due to dehydration and overheating.

When people talk about having OCD, I completely understand where they’re coming from. I also happen to be fairly neurotic and obsessive about keeping myself safe. I’m happy to say, I don’t know the same pervasive handicap that a lot of other OCD individuals do. However, it doesn’t stop me from being affected by my mental health affliction on a regular basis. Namely, every time I leave the house. You see, I became quite obsessed with my indoor air quality control system about 10 years ago. I had been through an unfortunate air conditioning failure in the middle of summer that nearly was the end of me. It was so hot and humid outside during that summer that it was literally a danger to be in my home without a central cooling system running. When I noticed that my central cooling system has stopped operating, I immediately tried my best to repair the AC system on my own. Unfortunately, I caused more damage to the massive AC unit than I helped myself. When I called out a professional heating and cooling technician for help, it took over three days before they could fit my appointment into their busy repair schedule. I nearly died that summer due to dehydration and overheating. Ever since that HVAC disaster, I have been completely obsessed with checking on my central heating and cooling system. I never want to live another day without indoor air quality control, so I incessantly check on my AC system and forced air furnace. Everyday when I have to leave the house to go to work it takes me several hours to perform my HVAC diagnostic rituals. I know other people worry about the oven, but I’m more terrified of my AC system.
propane boiler

You never know when you’re next opportunity arises; teaching HVAC

It can be really easy to get down on yourself and assume that life is never going to get better.

If you’re basing your future expectations on how things have gone in the past, it’s quite likely that you’ll feel pessimistic about everything.

At least, that’s the case in my life. Things have never been very easy and I often assume that that’s an indication of the future. However, it helps to recognize that there are always new opportunities coming your way if you’re open to them. This has been the case in my own personal experience as a recently fired heating and cooling technician. When the pandemic began, the air quality control shop had a steep decline in business. People didn’t want to invite strange heating and cooling workers into their home which would increase the chances of transmitting the virus to their families. They wanted to increase their air purification measures, but obviously they were afraid of the HVAC technicians transferring germs from one residential HVAC repair to the next. Unfortunately, this meant that half of the heating and cooling technicians on staff were laid off. I honestly started panicking right away, thinking that I would never find another air quality control job that could pay my bills. Well, you never know when opportunity will knock. Shortly after losing my job, I was contacted by a local trade school who wanted to hire more remote professors for their HVAC certification program. They said I could teach the professional HVAC repair courses from the safety of my own home and transmit all of my expertise to up-and-coming air quality control specialists. Best of all, I make twice as much as I did at my old job.

 

heating service