Reddit mentions: The best home heating & air conditioning books

>"When you are talking about ways to conserve energy and reduce home energy bills there are basically two different ways of doing it--there's conservation and then there's efficiency. Conservation is basically a lifestyle change in which you change your behaviors to reduce your use and save energy. Conservation paired with technological fixes (efficiencies) will save you a lot more than if you just relied on technological efficiencies. As individuals look at reducing their bills, focusing on both conservation and efficiency measures will get you the biggest bang for your buck."

This just makes too much sense. And apparently if you try and go this route, people label you as crazy.

I think I saw it here, a nifty idea for a refrigerator. Here's the link. Oh how I want to do this.

I am studying (on my own) passive solar with a goal of retrofitting this home (or another, if need be). It makes sense and puts your home almost off the grid- and you don't even need solar panels to do it. This sort of thinking is what we need to see more of. The book I am reading at the moment is The Passive Solar House. I checked it out of the library, but am considering making the investment.

Things I've found that do/would help me, here in the southwest:

Solar oven
I use a cardboard box right now to produce yummy meals with no energy costs.

Low end solar panels
These, with an inverter and battery can do a few things for you. A neat site that talks about these is Green Science Power.

My next computer will (hopefully) be one of these. They are supposed to have a laptop coming out. All run on DC, so you can run it right off of a solar panel- and they use very little power.

I have looked into solar hot water heaters and I want one. The government will give a $500 rebate (at least here, for a short time). What I don't understand is why they only give rebates after the fact.

I did have a home energy audit done for $99. I was given 12 CFLs, two small faucet nozzles, one large faucet nozzles and a shower head to lower water usage. The costs of these helped offset the cost of the audit. It gave me a good idea on where to begin.

For those of you in Arizona, see today's paper- these are things you may want to consider in the near future: Arizona regulators approve rules for energy efficiency

I'm on the engineering design side, but I think the suggestion I have still applies. Read everything you can get your hands on. Buy books about HVACR and make a goal of reading for 30 minutes a day. I find doing this in the morning is the best time as your mind is fresh. You will be amazed at how quickly you will become "the expert" if you do this.

One of the best books I can offer as a suggestion (I've read it front to back) that is a nice mix of 75% contractor usefulness 25% engineering design is Fundamentals of HVACR. It even has example "calls" with owner complaints and troubleshooting steps.

Fundamentals of HVACR (3rd Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0134016165/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_jIh5AbJXP9N8N

buy this text book,
https://www.amazon.ca/Commercial-Refrigeration-Air-Conditioning-Technicians/dp/1428335269

very well written, it makes every thing in commercial refrigeration (grocery stores ) very easy to understand.

klein 8 inch 5/16, and 1/4 nut drivers, are great. really help get into tight spots on hvac units and refrigeration.

buy cheap hand tools to start, harbor freight or home depot or whatnot. you will set things down and forgot them, better to buy two and have a second one in your truck then to buy one expensive one and not be able to replace it. slowly replace these tools as they wear out or get lost with good german tool brands like wiha, wera, knipex.

yellow jacket is really good for everything refrigeration. if you need gauges or specific tools look to them.

if you work with someone else to start, every time you use a tool they have, go out and buy it for yourself.

I would worry about condensation and mold on your cool ceiling. If your summers are humid, that would be a bigger problem than if they're dry...

We just put in radiant heating in our home last year and had a very pleasant winter. It was a DIY job and the Siegenthaler book was extremely helpful. Definitely worth the money. Another excellent resource: heatinghelp.com

Good luck!

For studying, I bought the MERM and the associated book of practice problems. But these are more complicated than the actual test, so do not be discouraged if you have trouble with their content. The NCEES PE practice exam is closer to reality.

As you study, create a 3-ring (no loose or stapled papers permitted in test) binder of the most useful reference information that you use frequently. Dan Molloy has a practice course and an excellent Youtube channel. Begin studying at least 6 months out.

The MERM also has a quick reference book, but I didn't use that much during my test. However, I did use the ASHRAE books (eg ASHRAE Fundamentals 2017) to look up obscure refrigerants and reference tables for subjects like vibration and noise. Find these and borrow them from another engineer - they are worth at least 5 correct answers.

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Good luck!

http://epb.lbl.gov/thermal/hydronic.html

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Hydronic-Heating-Residential-Commercial/dp/1428335153

Hydronics is a well tested and used technology, just that its expensive in the initial installation. Similar as with solar panels, you have to pay up front, but then it pays for itself.

Sinking an insulated tank containing a couple of tonnes of water in your basement is quite easy, easy also to heat up the water with water panels on your roof, then extract the heat later.

People use this to maintain 65F temps in their modern ultra efficient houses.

Google and read up on it.

You could check out this book: https://www.amazon.com/Building-Automation-Systems-Survive-World/dp/1539914488/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

I know the author so I can at least tell you he's genuinely interested in helping people in BAS and has a good career to back it up. Hope it helps?

Nothing beats this book for grocery stores.

https://www.amazon.ca/Commercial-Refrigeration-Air-Conditioning-Technicians/dp/1428335269

Well worth keeping In your van. Really well written and easy to read not a typical textbook.


Sporlans website has tons of information. Almost too much.

YouTube is great for electrcial and anything visual.

Cinderblocks are concrete blocks with holes in them for grout and reinforcing. Unfortunately you'd need to know if they're grouted to accurately rate them, but yes the values exist. As per the equation further up that page, divide the thickness of the material by it's R-value and you get the thermal conductivity, k.

That said, every component in a building has a thermal resistance property which must be accounted for when considering heating and cooling load calculations and the subsequent heat transfer. Account for holes by treating them as 0 R-value areas.

If there are windows in the rooms you should be able to gauge the wall composition to determine how to set up your problem. If you need a reference I recommend Principles of HVAC. Check with your library before buying one as the reference stacks might have it or something similar.

It helps to treat the system like series or parallel circuits depending on the layering.

http://www.archtoolbox.com/materials-systems/thermal-moisture-protection/rvalues.html

Well I'm guessing you are probably going to learn about residential systems first. Easy to learn. I learned out of this book.http://www.amazon.com/Refrigeration-Conditioning-Technology-Bill-Whitman/dp/1111644470/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418598491&sr=8-1&keywords=air+conditioning+textbook
The instructor will have his own choice of book though....First things you learn are principles of pressure and temperature, and then the basic refrigeration cycle, and then basic electricity...I would say getting a head start is great but the on hands with the teacher is really going to be what sticks with you....Some of the guys in this sub might agree that after you have read or been taught a little bit about it, it will stick better when you do it yourself

This is great. Has all the fundamentals and basic troubleshooting. Fantastic

HVAC Troubleshooting Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071604995/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fivSBb0285KH3

Fun read. 1.04W for 1W of computing power is astounding.

I couldn't help but cringe a little inside when "Frank Frankovsky, Facebook’s vice president of hardware design and supply chain operations" said "People run their data centers at 60 or 65 degrees."

That's a bit of embellishment. A cold DC these days is maybe 65º.

And "most servers are expected to keel over at 75F" is a stretch too. Some room UPS units don't operate optimally above 75º because it shortens the life of the lead-acid batteries, but the EMC VNX array that we just put in our DC is listed as fine up to 95º (35ºC) ("Continuous Allowable Range"), the Dell PE 720 servers that go into our DC operate just fine up to 95º, and the Cisco 4500 chassis works fine up to 104º

Even the ASHRAE book recommends an upper limit of 80.6ºF (27ºC).

Google "Codigo Sismico"
Every result on the front page is Costa Rica.
the International Handbook for Earthquake Engineering was written by a Costa Rican.

Every single Latin-American country consults with Costa Rican seismologists and engineers before constructing large projects near fault lines.

We helped revise LA's seismic code during the 90's and after they saw how robust our studies have been, they basically said "fuck it, we'll use your code".

Japan asked Costa Rica for help when revising their seismic code post-fukushima.

We live ON TOP of the world's most active fault line, with the carribean, cocos and nazca plates having a fucking party under us. We have first-hand experience.
So you can laugh all you want, I know my country. Go fuck yourself :)

Modern Hydronics is a great start.
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Hydronic-Heating-Residential-Commercial/dp/1428335153

Look into the trade groups as well.

http://www.igshpa.okstate.edu
https://www.ashrae.org

I did that test (ua787?) right out of college, it's not an easy one. The science is based around refrigeration theory and the math gets quite challenging without a calculator. The mechanical aptitude is easy enough if you're familiar with the questions. I recommend picking up "Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technology" and study at least the first few chapters. Here's a link: https://www.amazon.ca/Refrigeration-Conditioning-Technology-Bill-Whitman/dp/1111644470

Yeah look for idronics, you can request copies but they are all probably online. They also have monthly webinars that get put on YouTube eventually.

Another good read would be https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1428335153

Also anything by Dan Holohan

https://www.amazon.ca/Modern-Hydronic-Heating-Residential-Siegenthaler/dp/B00DEKE87O

I have found it to be a great resource.

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Hydronic-Heating-Residential-Commercial/dp/1428335153

this is a good one for hydronics. also can't go wrong with keeping a copy of pumping away and primary secondary pumping made easy

http://www.amazon.com/Primary-Secondary-Pumping-Made-Easy-Holohan/dp/0974396079

Go get yourself this book. Read.

You can find a free PDF file if you know where to look.

https://www.amazon.com/Refrigeration-Conditioning-Technology-Bill-Whitman/dp/1111644470

This book is all you really need to be honest

This book was used in my HVAC elective Senior year, it actually follows pretty closely to what I do now, as an HVAC designer.

This is why I'm currently printing out my 900-page heat transfer book at work. I'm not paying $400 for a 20-year-old book I can get for free.

Oh, I'm sorry. Make that A 60-year-old book that goes for $650 new

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/1428319360/ref=pd_aw_sim_sbs_14_of_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=WSP0MA21G6FKBQCHJ5ZH

Good reference book.

I find this book has a lot of good info in it:
http://www.amazon.com/Industrial-Refrigeration-Handbook-Wilbert-Stoecker/dp/007061623X

https://www.amazon.com/Refrigeration-Conditioning-Technology-Available-CourseMate/dp/1428319360/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1536407709&sr=8-

But buy it used. Like 30-40 bucks.

I see IIAR 6 mentioned below. I don't think that is what you want.

This is what you want: https://www.amazon.com/Industrial-Refrigeration-Handbook-Mechanical-Engineering/dp/007061623X

http://www.amazon.com/Guide-NATE-Certification-Exams-Edition/dp/0132319705

This pretty much covers everything

Also depending on where you are you may be able to find a guy in your area that will do a crash coarse then give your test.