Are you an ace troubleshooter? We pose a question to you, our readers, to review a system’s schematic layout and discover its faults, flaws and defects.
You may be the best technical plumber in town, but you will earn poor reviews and bad word-of-mouth if you cannot communicate well. Here are nine simple steps you can take to improve your communication skills. Almost all of them are non-verbal.
A recent inquiry involved a heating system for a school in which two electric boilers were being added to supplement the output of a gas-fired cast-iron boiler, and take advantage of low “off-peak” electrical rates.
Have you remodeled a bathroom recently? If so, maybe you’ve noticed problems with the toilet. To get more specific: Is it rocking noisily when the homeowner takes a seat? Or maybe they've noticed water pooling at the base. Perhaps the flooring surrounding the toilet feels soft. Or water spots have appeared on the ceiling located directly below the toilet.
When I first started working for Plumbing & Mechanical’s sister publication, The ACHR NEWS in 2014, I was often the only woman in the room at industry events. Those first few conferences were just a bit intimidating. In fact, it wasn’t until a HARDI annual conference that I first met other women in the industry — shout out to Colleen Keyworth, director of sales and marketing for Online-Access and immediate past president of Women in HVACR, for her immediate friendship then and for all the years since!
Codes and standards are intended to provide a minimum level of protection of the public’s health, safety and welfare. And, generally, these documents accomplish that intended purpose in the urban/metropolitan areas of the United States. However, that may not be accurate when one gets into the rural or more isolated areas of the country.
Mike Rowe, the “Dirty Jobs” guy, caught a bunch of flak for saying, “safety third.” Seems folks took that to mean Rowe did not consider jobsite safety a priority when, in fact, he was attempting to point out the absurd notion that posted “safety first” signage was a farce. No one is really going to be constantly looking out for an individual’s safety and Rowe was simply trying to convey the message that everyone has to be responsible for their own safety on jobsites.
I love all the advances taking place in the world of hydronics, but I’m still seeing plenty of steam systems out there in our older cities, so knowing about dry steam will help you if you’re replacing a steam boiler. The dryer the steam is, the better you’re going to look to your customers.