"Why aint it lining up on the fan curve???"

Anybody make the jump from TAB to commissioning?

I've been fielding the market and Cx firms are giving me the best offers

Seems the biggest downside is more travel but Im ok with that. most of my TAB projects have been out-of-state anyways.

It looks like an old armstrong valve body but a new armstrong dial?

Anyone familiar with Field Commander? We have a job using these controls and the control contractor has been less than helpful. We need to find some way to plug in and balance these.

Since moving into balancing full time from installing any recommendations on a smaller service bag ? And what does everyone typically carry

Any one have some sage advice on improving productivity. Been doing this for a couple years now and started keeping track of how many hours I spend on each piece of equipment. Ive been given a general rule of thumb for estimating how long something should take and based on my records I'm slow.

I have the reputation in our company as being very high strung about my work and been criticise for taking too much time "thinking not doing" a few times now. My reputation seems to be that it'll be done right but done slow. On the flipside people are hesitant to question my work. Thats nice, but i now want to start learning how to speed things up (without sacrificing quality obviously).

Do you guys have a place on your reports for the return fan tracking offset for AHU’s that have supply and return/relief fans, or know how to determine this?

Where does everyone buy their red caps to cover traverse holes?

What do y’all prefer, Make Up Air (MUA) or Make Up Air Unit (MAU)?

I am looking to purchase a box/roll of poly tubing that is more durable than the typical Shortridge material and is a long enough bundle that we can trim to suit for multiple applications. Doesn't matter if it's clear or black, but it cannot be the rigid plenum rated tubing. Does anyone have a go-to material & provider with sizing that has worked well for your team?

What are some notes/observations that you frequently include in your reports? I'll go first: "electrical measurements not safely accessible." This note is now all over our reports because a guy was attempting to gets amps/volts off a mini split through a light switch style disconnect. When attempting to put the cover back on, he fried a transformer. It probably would of helped if the electrician didn't pull a mile of wire into a handy box.

Recently theres been quite a bit of friction between the field and the office following someone's promotion.

We have two principal players in the office, our NEBB CP and an "office guy."

NEBB CP has 20+ years of field experience and did everything from sheet metal, service, controls, TAB, and even design for a bit.

The "office guy" never held a tool in his hand and was only hired on to do pre-production paperwork and invoicing. He doesn't have any technical background

Now there's been a shift were the "office guy" is starting to take on a more of a "manager" role and all of us field techs are kicking back hard. It's gotten to the point were some just ignore him and only talk to the CP.

At first I thought guys were being unreasonable and tried to give him a chance, but he's does shit like pull us off jobs that are on fire to go an 1.5 hours across town to do some stupid BS job that could have waited. He also ignores basic pre-planning questions we techs specifically ask him before going to a job. For example, he wanted to send me to a hospital to do a survey of some equipment - just on the roof, no need to go inside. Naturally I asked what does the equipment serve. Got no response and come to find out it was 3 laboratory exhaust fans serving active fume hoods. Then he was mad at me for refusing to perform survey work until this was properly coordinated with the active lab. After that I started ignoring him and only going through the CP too.

The attitude us field guys have is that the "manager" of field techs should have a reasonable amount of field experience or technical background. There's been whispers of guys strongly considering leaving an otherwise good outfit to start their own thing because of it. I would bet my career more than half our techs would jump ship if that move goes through. We all also feel that if they are just going to hire people with no field experience for "management" positions than there's no upward mobility for the guys actually generating the company revenue. There's also rumors that "office guy" is studying for the NEBB CP, because the requirement is only years of "management" experience. Suffice to say, morale is at an all time low.

Meanwhile the office has been real stubborn about this and considers it as "growing pains" for the new "manager."

Do you guys deal with this? Or would you move on to something better?

Sorry this was mainly just me venting to be honest.

EDIT: needless to say "office guy" is related to people in the office

Been doing a lot of hydronic balancing with large systems that have variable speed pumps controlling to a system dP setpoint.

The way I have been taught is that you first set the system for full flow and set the dP for your worst case coil. Then you can go one by one and just set the circuit setters on each coil individually. The reasoning being that the dP will automatically adjust so you only have to touch a circuit setter once.

This doesnt really make sense to me. It almost sounds like being able to only touch each dampers once on a fan if the fan is controlling to static pressure setpoint. Im not sure if that works.

Please let me know if this is the proper way. Im an apprentice and all the journeymen swear this is how you do it but Im having trouble understanding the principle that allows you to just go to each coil and set the flow once and then your good to go.

I guess it just sounds too good to be true

I'm working on a project with KMC Controls thermostats. It's a federal site so wireless routers are not allowed and we are getting our steps in every day to travel to the panel to make control changes and back to the work zone. There are many reasons why Controls is unavailable to support so we won't go into that for this question. Does anyone have experience with KMC and if their service tool has an interface that supports TAB adjustments such as flow coefficients and setpoints adjustments?

Edit: the terminal unit controllers are KMC Conquest.

I am sure many of you are more techy then myself, so maybe you can help.

As many of you know it can be very difficult to get some control software yet as TAB contractors we are expected to have ALL types of new and old software.

I was thinking we could set up a Dropbox or some type of shareable folder and share any control software that we have that doesn't require a key or registration. It could be helpful to list the types of chords that go along with this software.

Thoughts?

What boots/shoes do you guys like using? Does your company keep it mandatory that you wear safety toe or not?

We are recently working on a project with VRF. The Cassette has a 22 ft return opening in the middle and the air is recirculating in the opening. The supply is in the four outside slim openings next to the return. We are currently using the 22 ft flow hood to measure the return and use 3*3 ft flow hood to measure the net flow coming out from the cassette(SA-RA=OA). But sometimes we get the negative net airflow (OA). I think that is because we get some turbulence airflow when we measure the net airflow. Is there any typical procedure to perform the OA/SA/RA testing of VRF? Like using a cardboard to block the return opening or turn off the Cassette fan. Seeking advices. Thanks a bunch in advance!!!

What are some of the functions/formulas you guys use?

I have my air outlet reports doing percents for me and they highlight light red when below 89%, light green when between 90-110% and red when they are 111% and above.

I also have my traverse report adding all my numbers for me.

Just want to know if there is any other helpful things that you use in excel.

HVAC graduate with about half a year of field experience (residential installs not TAB).

Hi guys/gals

I’m working at a shop on the east coast, and beginning to get my feet wet (no pun intended) with some water systems. I know some basic level stuff regarding hydronic systems but wasn’t sure if anyone had advice on how to approach a water system.

1. what are some common issues you experience
2. what are some things you like to address before commencing your balancing activities’
3. troubleshooting techniques when approaching certain issues etc.

I’ve have had some minor work with water, usually assisting others, but would like to gather a bit more predation tools and knowledge before I begin.. and only present my employer with issues/questions if absolutely necessary.

I’m going over the water section in my NEBB book as well. Thanks for any input!

Curious what the pay range is currently in Canada, specifically Toronto area. I see American wages discussed here before but not much for us north of the border.