HVAC BOB - Your Trusted HVAC Resource

When my parents told me what life was about, I stupidly believed them.

They always preached the importance of getting a good education, a good job, and a good home.

They said that settling down and preparing for a long life leading to a miserable death was the proper way to conduct yourself. So I went out and got a great degree. I got myself a great job. I got myself a great house. And then I slowly waited to die. However, at some point along the line I started to question exactly what I was doing… IS this living? My great uncle showed up at just the right time to show me how mistaken I had been, thanks to my failing indoor air quality control equipment. The realization all began on the night that my heating system failed. It was bitterly cold in my home and I couldn’t figure out why the thermostat wasn’t controlling the indoor air handling equipment properly. I kept messing with the furnace, trying to relight the pilot, and checking the internet for other HVAC troubleshooting ideas. FInally, I gave up and called my uncle, who was a professional indoor air quality control specialist. He was kind enough to run right over to my home, where he promptly inspected the heating device and made several small repairs. As my uncle talked to me about HVAC, he also told me about his life as an air temperature equipment worker. It turns out, the life of an indoor heating and cooling technician is pretty interesting. Every day is different in the HVAC repair world, unlike my own. RIght now, I’m applying to go back to school… this time, for a basic heating and cooling repair position.

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I guess I never once stopped and considered the life that I was born into until I finally began changing my perspective a few years ago.

It turns out, there are a lot of ways to live besides the suburban drawl that seems to sink a lot of folks.

days. You don’t have to buy the newest, fanciest gadgets all the time. You don’t need a massive house. And you don’t even require the amount of daily comfort that we toil to provide for ourselves. Case and point? The indoor air quality control system that most of us operate. Have you been using a central heating and cooling setup your whole life? Because it turns out that indoor air quality control systems do not need to be as intensive and wasteful as we’ve made them out to be. I mean, it makes no sense when you really consider the benefits that we receive from HVAC systems in our lives. Not only is there the cost of the HVAC devices, in the first place… but then you have to pay for seemingly endless professional maintenance on every furnace or AC unit you purchase for the decade-long lifetime of the heating, cooling, and ventilation device. If you forget professional service appointments, you’re going to be paying a ton in electricity. I figured all of this out the hard way when my HVAC System started putting out unevenly tempered, smelly indoor air a few years ago. I realized that I had never called an HVAC service before. My HVAC devices were ineffectively handling the indoor air, the systems were barely changing the temperature, and my ducts were in shambles. After I got done with the massive HVAC overhaul, I was better off buying a whole new air handling system.

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My wife Is awesome in so many ways! That’s not how I would describe myself, but 15 years into our marriage, we are truly happy. However, to win her over back then, I almost ruined my HVAC system! The story is odd, but true. We met at work, both of us just out of college. Broke, with no romance skills, I did the best I could, which meant going with some old-fashioned perceptions. I romanced my wife by cooking for her by candlelight! The first meal I baked for her, I made it casual but lit candles on the dinner table. For some reason, she loved it! She loved how authentic and relaxed it was. I figured it was the candlelight so I kept doing it. What I didn’t realize was that this was bad for my HVAC equipment; all that burnt wax in a small apartment builds in a hurry. After a few dinners, the air filter was covered with a sheet of candle wax.

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Last year, we had to do some creative budgeting.

Reducing our spending and living more frugally was a necessity.

The cause of our financial straits was the pandemic. Straits isn’t the best term, because my wife and I still had our jobs and schooling. Without our jobs – we were working from home – we would have been in dire financial straits! Still, we had to reduce our spending significantly. There was no leaving the home for entertainment, trips, or going out to eat, so the savings there helped. We also saved money in other ways. By mid-summer, though, my wife and I had a problem that caused us to consider a very bad idea. We noticed the air conditioning wasn’t keeping up. The heat pump was running all the time! I decided I could fix this myself by watching some online videos. I convinced myself I could recharge the refrigerant. How I got so overconfident is beyond me! Thankfully, my wife knew how to shut this down, and not to trust someone who had watched some online videos. She scheduled a repair with our HVAC company.

 

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I’m trying my best to get better when it comes to getting things done around the house.

This doesn’t come naturally for me, which is a shame because I grew up in an environment in which I could learn to be thrifty.

My dad could fix just about anything around the house. He never fooled with the HVAC system – he left that to the professionals – but, like second nature, he always completed the heating and cooling chores around the house. He worked those projects around his other projects. That’s not how I am. I need to set a reminder on my phone to change the darn filter; even then, I’m not consistent about it! I took a great step in that direction when I called our HVAC company; signing up for their repair plan takes the responsibility off of me! Now, I don’t have to remember to schedule the maintenance every fall and spring, and I’ve remembered to change the filters the last six months in a row! Is that a record? So, I think I’m doing my best at taking care of our HVAC equipment.

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