All right, good morning, everybody morning. Wow, look at that. that's awesome. I like that? Um, thank you for all.

uh, remembering who I am and still com into these classes. It makes me feel warm in my heart. Um, this. uh, this is the second part of the preparing for heating season uh series and we really just kind of covered the basics of gas last time and we got through a little bit of combustion, a little bit of combustion air, all that.

But now we're going to get into some more specifics now. One of the things: Whenever we do these sorts of overview classes. there's probably a hundred hours of detailed information you could go into on every single one of these topics. So if there's anything that you go away from that you're like I didn't get the full thing.

all you got to do is just remember a keyword. Like if you want to learn more about standing pilot or you want to learn more about hot surface ignition, or you want to learn more about flame sensing, just take those keywords. put them in the HVAC school app in the search bar and you'll get a lot more content, articles, videos, that kind of stuff. Bert's done some good stuff on some of this.

We've done some stuff together, so there's a lot a lot of good content out there. But so this is just an overview. And right now I Want to go through the different types of ignition in gas? because it is. they are significantly different and if you get them confused, um, you're going to make mistakes both in your diagnosis, but also potentially in the parts that you order.

We're going to a lot more. Universal Components Universal Modules Universal igniters Universal Flame rods and if you don't know what type of gas Appliance you're working on, then you're going to order the wrong thing. And this is especially true with gas heaters. Uh, gas pool heaters I Should say uh, we we do a lot of work on gas pool heaters I Think we're maybe doing a little less than we used to, but still, you're going to see a lot of them.

And when you're working with a gas pool heater, you can't just uh, give a model number and describe the part and walk away. You have to take pictures. You have to understand exactly what you're looking at when you order a part. So I'm going to pause there, just let you process that photos understand.

in addition to just giving a model number because pool manufacturers are not the same as HVAC manufacturers you have to like. Like, you'll call them and you'll be like here's the model number. It'll be like, well, yeah, but what did the part look like? What did the control? How many buttons do the control module have? You know it's just a different world. They don't have the same recordkeeping and the same manufacturing rigor so just going through First off, standing pilot.

If you've ever had a client say something along the lines of you know I think I need to I Think you need to light the pilot for the for the furnace or the boiler or whatever. Uh, that's because throughout most of the history of gas furnaces and water heaters and fireplaces, gas fireplaces and all these, they had something called standing Pilot And in Standing Pilot, the way it worked is you would have this little light. this little, this little tiny flame that would be on all the time and in order to save gas in the summer they would often shut it off, they'd shut the gas supply off altogether and then when you turn it back on, you would have to relight the pilot and then that pilot would stay on the entire heating season again. Now nowadays, we don't have a lot of that, but you will still see these and you'll see them primarily in water heaters.

and you'll see them in some gas pool heaters. If you ever walk up to a gas pool heater and you notice that it does not have a power supply at all, it has no electrical whip going into it. I Remember somebody, one of the junior techs called up and was like this thing isn't going to work. It doesn't have any power, it doesn't have any electricity.

Well, the way this works is that little flame. That little pilot flame immerses this thermac couple. If you've ever heard the term thermocouple before, that's what. That's what it.

That's what it's actually putting the flame on. Is this Thermac couple? And this Thermac couple actually generates a really, really small voltage in the Molt scale. So it actually acts almost like a little tiny. Transformer It's actually creating a little bit of energy.

and then that energy travels through the safety path and is what actually energizes the gas valve. So it's it's It's acting as a power supply, but it also acts as a method to prove flame. So this term proving flame is really important because imagine you have a a gas pool heater, You have a water heater, you have a gas furnace, and it's time for it to start igniting, right? And it starts pumping gas into it. And there's no pilot light there.

There's no igniter that's heated up in order to ignite that flame. What happens to that unspent gas if it just keeps pumping in there? What happens? Boom boom, eventually, right? It just keeps filling up and filling up and filling up. And eventually you have a bomb. So there has to be some way for it to prove flame.

Meaning that the furnace, the heater, the the water heater has to know that a flame is present. And in the case of a Thermac couple, it performs both of these duties. Not only does it generate power, generates electricity, electrical current, but it also if there is no flame, then it's not generating electrical current, and therefore it can't energize the gas valve. So it kind of does double duty.

That makes sense cuz if there's no flame, there's no power. So obviously you know you're relying on that little pilot. If the gas flows over it, that then it's going to ignite. So that's standing pilot.

Standing pilot does require you to actually light it. We don't run into that very often. Usually you have to kind of like push a button and then you light it and then you turn it and lock it in. It's you know.

It's usually there's instructions right there that tells you how to do it. Direct spark is pretty rare. Um, we see these and Re has some furnaces with direct spark. We don't have a lot in our Market Um, but Direct spark is where it actually lights the main burner directly.

There's no pilot, just the gas comes in and there and it's sparking. And that spark likes the main gas. It's still used as a flame rod in order to prove flame. So in that case, when you have a flame, Rod the flame Rod is not a thermocouple.

It doesn't generate electricity, but it just acts as a conductor to ground. It allows current to move to ground and that proves flame. So flame goes over the flame. Rod proves flame.

That's what. That's what keeps it locked in. Um, Next is intermittent spark. and we do have a lot of these.

So this is intermittent spark and hot surface are the two most common that we see. now. intermittent spark uses Spark to light a pilot and then the pilot lights the main flame. So it just it's It's a little bit more.

uh. I Don't want to say it's a little bit more reliable in the sense that it's easier to light a main burner with an actual standing flame than it is with a spark. So basically same thing, you have this little tick tick tick tick tick tick tick kind of like spark like you would see. you know, imagine with a Um with a spark plug in a car.

that kind of thing. It just has this little Arc it lights that pilot, then the pilot, uh, immerses in a flame. Rod which then proves flame. and then you have your main burner lights you know, travels over that and then lights off.

One thing to keep in mind as I'm just kind of talking about this: If you ever, if you ever look at a gazoom tight. if you ever look at a uh uh, a burner assembly, you'll generally notice that it lights on one side of the burner assembly and it proves on the other other side. That's it's. not always the case, but it is in a lot of cases and the reason is is that it lights over here those it has these little kind of carryovers on the burner so that way it burns and lights all the way across the burner and so you light over here and then it makes sure that you actually still have flame all the way on the other side of the burner.

Does that make sense? You have this little Rod over here. It's lighting over here and that is actually an important thing. especially when um, furnaces, pool heaters start to corrode and deteriorate. A lot of times that flame carryover can start to not work the way it's supposed to, especially when you got a lot of junk falling in there.

which is part of the importance of making sure that stays cleaned out and isn't all corroded isn't all damaged. One of the really big things that I'm going to keep coming back to, especially for our Market because pool heaters are one of the ones that we see the most is that when you have a really damaged burner assembly where it's where it is corroded and there's a lot of mess, We really do need to quote a new pool heater. We we can't just leave that be because it does become dangerous for these reasons that we've mentioned. And then finally you have hot surface ignition.

Hot surface ignition is just like a little, just like a little oven coil. It's a little electric heater. It gets it glows orange and then uh, the pain burner is ignited on that hot hot surface igniter. All right, I'm not going to go through All of these Steps step by step on this.

Um, again, all of this is available to you. We have a really good 3D video that shows you how to adjust gas on both of these types of valves. Um, but I Do just want to cover some of the high points. So in order to adjust gas pressure on a gas valve, you need to have a monometer.

Uh, and it's going to be dual Port monometer. So you're going to be able to measure the inlet gas pressure and you're going to be able to measure the outlet gas pressure simultaneously. So you're generally going to. you're going to shut off your gas completely going into your gas valve.

In the case of a standard valve, you're going to take out these tiny little Barbed ports you're going to put in the little the little brass. Uh, uh sorry. you're going to take out little plugs. You're going to put in your Barb ports and you're going to measure the pressure now.

Number one, Most important thing about this is that if you are ever taking ports out of a gas valve, you need to make sure those ports to go back in before you leave. That's the most important message. Uh, which is the danger of people starting to measure gas pressure? If you haven't done it before, you have to always 100% make sure that those plugs go back in because if you turn that gas back on and those plugs are out, guess what happens fills up with gas. You make a bomb, right? So not okay.

The standard gas pressure that you're going to operate on in most cases Again, you can always just look at the data tag on the appliance. it will tell you um, but typically uh, when we're working with natural gas which is the vast majority of what we work on is going to be 3.3 to 3.8 in of water column, that's your output and then you also are going to have a rated input as well and that's going to be on the data tag of the appliance. Here's how much pressure we need to have coming in, and then here's the rated pressure coming out. You make an adjustment, you have a little Capal that you pull off and then there you make an adjustment with a screw in order to adjust that outlet pressure on the gas valve.

And a lot of people say well, which way do I turn it? Uh well you actually turn it in so you actually turn it uh, clockwise in order to increase the output pressure just like like you do on your uh torch, uh valves. So but it. but it really isn't that hard to remember because what you'll notice is when you're adjusting it, if you turn it the wrong way, then the pressure will start to go the wrong direction and so then you just turn it back the other way and it'll be right. So it's kind of kind of obvious.

Um, the next thing is is that when you are adjusting gas pressure, especially like we talked about last week a little bit, you need to think about what are the other mitigating factors. A lot of times what we'll find is and this is a kind of a uniquely Florida thing because we have so much really messed up gas here. you have to think about what else is running at the same time. So a lot of cases the reason why gas pressure isn't right, especially reason it drops on the outlet is because it also dropped on the inlet.

So if you think about it this way, um, your pressure is never going to drop. If nothing's running, it's the same thing. like water pressure. right? If you test the water pressure on your house and you don't have anything flowing in the house, your water pressure is going to be fine.

So as soon as you turn on a tub, a shower, a hose, whatever, then the water pressure drops down. Same thing is true with gas. A lot of times the issues that we have with gas. This is especially true with propane.

but it's also true with natural gas is that it's because you, maybe someone's running this gigantic you know stove that they put in and they're running all the burners. And maybe they're You know, the water heaters on at the same time and the furnaces on at the same time? And then the pool heater turns on. That's where that Inlet pressure can begin to drop. And that's when your outlet pressure can also begin to become a problem.

So when you find especially intermittent problems with gas appliances, uh, you want to do that test where you go ahead and run it everything and then see if your Inlet and Outlet pressure are beginning to drop. In those circumstances, it's just using Common Sense Where this becomes really important with adjusting a gas valve is when we put it in the first time. When we first install a gas, Appliance we put in a furnace, We put in a pool heater. We put in a water heater.

We need to be measuring and adjusting that outlet gas pressure because the inlet gas pressure may not be exactly what it's supposed to be and that can affect it. Now again, that that valve is supposed to adjust right. It's supposed to keep a set, but you just just have to check it. It's an important thing to check, and it's one of the things that if we don't do, we can, actually, uh, leave a client with a uh Appliance that's not burning clean or not burning efficient and that's that can be dangerous.

So again, you have to have a monometer. You have to know how to use it. You have to make sure you put the plugs back in. It's two different types of valves.

There's this kind of standard valve and then there's a Gemini valve. Only difference with a Gemini valve is is that the place that you actually open. um, you don't actually pull anything out. You actually just you just crack some little little screws, you just back out a little bit and then you put the um, the tubing right over where you just opened.

um and again. If you've never seen one before, when you see it for the first time, just go to the video where I describe exactly how to adjust a Gemini valve and it's very, very simple. None of this is none of this is outside of your skill set. It's all very simple.

If you've ever measured static pressure before, it's the same tool. It's the same scale of static pressure. It's inches of water column. uh, and you just refer to what the manufacturer says.

Another thing worth mentioning is you'll have in many cases, two St stage furnaces or two stage Gas Appliances where they have low fire and high fire and those may have different gas pressure settings so you have to know, Are you in low fire? Are you in high fire? Just like when you have a uh piece of HVAC equipment and it's in low stage cooling or high stage Cooling And you have to check the pressure and high stage cooling. It's kind of like that you have to check low stage, what is your gas pressure? High stage, what is your gas pressure. And often they have separate adjustment points for you to do that. Make sense.

I'm rushing through a lot of stuff. I'm just I'm just introducing you to some thoughts. so you know that this stuff exists All right. Biggest hazards: Number one is gas leaks.

If gas is leaking, you have a bomb. like we talked about. of the things that I want you to pay the most attention to because we do remove a lot of gas furnaces. When we remove a gas furnace, what do we have to do to that ex existing gas line? We have to cap it, cap it in a way that it can't be easily uncapped, right? We can't we don't want you know.

Just a shut off valve that's not okay. We have to make sure that we got a got a cap on there. We got some pipe dope on it. It's definitely not coming off.

Um, we need to make sure that we're measuring for gas leaks. And the way to do that is with what tool. What tool do we use to measure for gas leaks? Lowel No, that is carbon monoxide, gasak gas leaks A Combustible gas Leak detector A Combustible gas Leak detector. Now some of you are like I don't have a combustible gas leak detector.

Your manager will make sure that you get one after this meeting I'm certain. So it's very important that everybody who works on gas appliances has a combustible gas leak detector. The good news is they're not expensive. Combustible gas leak detectors are not pricey.

UEI makes a a very reasonably priced one. Um and I would suggest you all have it now. A lot of people will say well I can just tell with my nose I can smell gas and that is actually true. That's that's one of the reasons why we get away with it sometimes, but that is not reliable.

You have a little cold and then the house blows up. That doesn't really work right? So you have to have a combustible gas leak detector. and every time after we assemble any sort of gas, we have to scan underneath it and make sure that we're not um and again I say underneath it. but natural gas is actually lighter than air so you would actually go over top.

in the case of natural gas, you check around all of your connections. The next is carbon monoxide that is Co not CO2 CO2 is normal. We breathe it. You know the the plants.

you turn it back into oxygen. all that kind of thing. Co is carbon monoxide and that happens due to incomplete combustion. So cars produce Co People smoking in their houses produces Co uh and Gas Appliances produce coo this is why I want you to have that personal protective Um Co monitor at least available to you in our Market when you're in a house where there is no gas burning appliances.

Obviously that and that's the majority of the homes we in. That's not a big deal, but when you walk into a house that has a gas furnace, you should have that with you because you can immediately just say, all right is there are there concerns in this home. When you're working on on the gas furnace and you're lighting it up and you're standing in that garage or in that mechanical room, you're just watching to make sure that you don't have a buildup of carbon monoxide. and then in addition to that that that lowlevel carbon monoxide detector.

We should be installing that as part we should be, including it, bundling it in. Every time we install a gas furnace, we should be just including that, put it on the wall in the kitchen, or wherever, uh, outside the bedrooms, and then that way if there is any danger of carbon monoxide levels Rising they'll be alerted to that again. I Mentioned this last time, but this is one of the most important things that I want to mention to you guys because it's also an opportunity for you to have this conversation in existing homes as well that have gas. Hey, I Noticed that you don't have a low-level carbon oxide detector.

Well, I do have a carbon oxide detector. It's that one Yes! and that one will not alarm until over 100 parts per million. That will alarm when you're about to die. We would like you to be well below that before you're alerted.

Um, and so this is battery powered batteries usually last about 3 years. You just have to replace it every 3 years. Here's how much it is. Um, I' just like to make you aware of it.

if the client doesn't accept it. that's fine. But at least now we have that documented. Do you see the value of that? Okay, next thing is flame roll out.

Flame roll out can happen for a lot of reasons: Improper venting, Improper gas pressure. Uh, not having um, uh, not having the necessary combustion air. Meaning not having enough air in the space for combustion. Again, just to back up and remind you every time you walk in in and there's gas appliances, you should be looking around to figure out where they're getting their oxygen from because this happens all the time too.

In: Florida Because so many people don't know what they're doing when they install them, they don't give access to oxygen. And so if you're ever in a in a closet and you look up and you see that vent that's just going up into the attic, Have you ever seen that before? that's what that's for, that's combustion air. Now it's a really terrible design because now of course now the air handler sweats and everything else because of the attic air coming in the closet. That's a whole another problem.

But it's there for a reason and we can't just block that up. And I've seen that happen Many cases. it's like, well, I see the problem? You got a big vent going into your attic and stick a piece of ductboard in it. Well, now you've starved it, starved it of oxygen.

So pay attention to all those things. But the biggest thing as it relates to Flame Rollout is just pay attention. Look for anything that looks like flame has been rolling out. if you walk up to a gas.

Appliance and there's like charred wires or things are black. Or it looks like flame has come back out out this direction. you need to pay really close attention what's going on. You don't just walk away from that.

You find that either you find the problem or we're quoting a new heater or both. And in a lot of cases, again, it's not that we're trying to just sell appliances, but when the question is a question of actual life safety, we have to be pretty. I Don't want to say pushy, but we have to be uh, assertive with our conversations related to it, especially with vacation rental managers because they don't think it's a big deal. Um, but again, all it takes is one pool heater to blow up beside a house.

Before everybody's going to think it's a really big deal and again it's It's not like it happens all the time, but it's just when the risks are great. we just have to be a little bit more attentive. This is really I Really wanted to get into this. so these are big things to look out for.

This is what I want you to be paying attention to on gas appliances or anytime you go into a home or a building that has gas as part of it. The first is improper venting. I I Like this example because you'll see this where vent goes up and then goes back down. Is that okay? No, it is not.

It needs to go consistently upwards. It can. It can. You know it can pitch sideways a little bit, but it needs to go consistently upwards.

not up, and then down. again. right? Fairly obvious. Uh, it shouldn't be disconnected.

Uh, it should go all the way through the roof. It can't just go into the sopit. It can't just go into the attic anytime you're uh, venting. uh.

combustion gas. It needs to go outside of the structure. Um, think about things like, uh. Another really common one is if you have houses that are bringing in outdoor air as is becoming more and more common as especially in higher end homes, that air intake should not be anywhere near any combustion.

Um Outlet any any sort of discharge of combustion products. Next thing is poor gasline installation and we see this all the time. One of the most common examples is people will use Appliance connectors to connect gas furnaces and they'll just Loop these these little stupid Appliance connectors. A lot of times they're too small.

uh, and a lot of times that's what tends to leak. You know Bert has a an epic uh, finding a leak with your nose video uh on the Uh Hbac School uh YouTube channel where that's where the that's where the leak was. It was actually in that Appliance connector And this comes down to us also understanding how we need to be connecting gas lines. Um, we really shouldn't just be getting a flexy fitting from Uh Home Depot and just connecting right? There's a lot of different ways that gas furnaces can be appropriately connected.

That's a different class, but just grabbing something off the shelf and saying because it fits it, it ships. That's not. That's not enough. You have to think about size and you have to think about is this really rated for this purpose? Next one is backdrafting or orphaned water heaters.

If you ever see a water heater that's connected to a gigantic flu pipe often, it's because we terminated a gas furnace and they and they used to tie in together. That's not a good thing because if you have a flu pipe that's too big, it won't draft properly so it's so big that it isn't actually heating up the flu appropriately. The flu gases cool down and it won't keep traveling up again. In order for you to have draft in a fireplace or draft in any sort of a a flu pipe or chimney, you it has to get warm enough that, and it has to stay warm enough that it actually wants to travel up.

Which is different. When we talked a little bit about, uh, the types of furnaces we don't work on a lot here. These um, condensing gas furnaces. These very high efficiency furnaces.

they actually have to power vent. It actually has to push the products out because they're so cold. And so there's a lot. That's why those furnaces.

That's one of many reasons why those furnaces are so different than what we're used to in our Market But the stuff we work on the water heaters and furnaces you see every day require that flu to be the right temperature. If it isn't, then it won't draft properly. And so when you take a water heater and you connect it to this gigantic flu that's designed for a gas furnace or a big chimney, it may not vent properly because of that and you can get backdrafting. Backdrafting will cause in a lot of cases high carbon monoxide around the area of where the of where the water heater is.

But one of the first things you'll notice is that draft Hood where it actually connects to the top of that water heater will be kind of blackened. In that area you'll see signs of melting and and and issues there. When you see that, don't walk away from it. Okay, call somebody who's most of you aren't super experienced with gas so call somebody who's more experienced with gas.

And until we make sure that we get whatever is causing that issue resolved. And usually it's going to start with just looking at the venting. you know, looking at the roof cap making sure it's not blocked. Stuff like that improper combustion air.

We've talked about this a lot. You have to have a place for o oxygen. You have to have available oxygen. Anytime you're going to be burning anything you have to have available oxygen.

It's part of the triangle and if you don't have available oxygen, you have incomplete combustion in very insa unsafe conditions. So you always have to think about where is this thing getting its oxygen from and in a lot of cases what happens is it was designed. You may have like a mechanical room that was designed with a Louver door or something. and then somebody replaces that door with a solid door and now all of a sudden they start shutting it and now you get major combustion issues inside the space in dangerous conditions.

So you have to pay attention to what changes inside of a structure. Um, improper gas pressure settings that can occur Often It happens because people misset gas pressure like I Would rather have somebody not adjust gas pressure at all than adjust gas pressure. uh and not know what they're doing. In a lot of cases, that happens because of issues like when they were setting it.

maybe they were setting it with, you know, a bunch of appliances running and then those appliances went off and then it went back up. You know there's all these different factors and so when you are adjusting gas pressure, you you need to take it really seriously the first time. Make sure it gets set correctly. do it with everything off and with everything on, that would be an ideal situation again.

For those of you who are doing gas furnaces, you're probably like man. I I Never do that. Well, that's why we had that process in place that we would do a furnace commissioning every time. Somebody who actually had all the tools and did combustion analysis and all that stuff.

uh, more experienced. A lot of my friends in the in the Uh Hbac space are going to watch this video and be like you didn't barely talk about combustion analysis at all. Well, that's because in our Market combustion analysis is essentially it's it's almost non-existent I Would say it is non-existent. We do it as part of our initial Uh furnace commissioning, but none of you regular service techs are going to go out and have a combustion analyzer on your truck and test combustion every time.

That's something that we want to grow in. but again, it's just because of the side how much gas we have in our Market versus other markets. But it doesn't give us an excuse for not setting gas pressure and setting combustion properly. Initially, we need to make sure we get that right.

The next thing is high ambient Co during operation and this can happen for a lot of reasons. A lot of times it's because maybe you're maybe you're venting out of a sidewall or venting out of a roof and it's getting recycled back into the sopit. For example, you may have a low pressure condition in the structure, maybe getting recycled through a fresh air intake? There's a lot of different reasons High ambient carbon monoxide can occur. We just have to have uh, some some stop Gap measures in place to ensure that, um, it's not going to be a problem for the client.

And that's where that, uh, having Co monitoring in place is important. You have to have that sort of UL rated. uh Co monitoring And every time you have gas appliances, that's code and that's important. That's the life safety part.

Like hey, it's this levels are so high that somebody's going to die if you don't do something. Um, but then also always suggesting those low-level monitors. Um, because again, this is a very well established thing in the industry in Florida people aren't used to it because again, we're just not great with this whole thing. Um, but it is something that you can offer to clients and they can even I don't even care if we offer it in such a way that they just buy it online themselves and just stick it on the wall themselves.

It's a battery operated device I Don't care, but just suggesting it, just bringing it to their attention could potentially Save Somebody And the the issue there is that um, you can have longterm effects that start happening in your health and you're not really sure what's going on Y what when you are exposed to to it? but that high level is not going to notify you until until it that so it could kill you and never get bad enough for that high level ever over time. And they even show that low levels like uh, 5 10 parts per million can cause respiratory ailments, respiratory conditions over time. So things like asthma and other respiratory issues. um, interesting fact and this is a complete aside and I shouldn't even go here.

but I'm going to anyway. Uh, when you think about haunted houses, this has actually been proven. There's actually you know this. This correlation has been shown that um, people who experien haunted houses you notice like they're always like really old houses and a lot of them have old gas appliances in them And so they've directly connected the experience of ghosts in homes to carbon monoxide.

and so people are actually just poisoning their brains and so they're um, they're seeing and hearing things. Uh, because of that. and it really is. It's it's pretty well connected.

Um, another kind of sad fact is that uh Walt Disney's parents actually died due to carbon monoxide poisoning. uh, in the home that he built for them in California So they moved down and the the Disney Engineers put the furnace in wrong and I think it was a combustion are issue and they ended up. They ended up dying from it. So it's a very real thing and it does actually affect a lot of people.

It's just modern appliances have gotten a lot better at it. We're actually more at risk in a lot of ways because we're just not that aware of it. We don't think about it as much as they do in other markets. all right.

So I'm just going to do a quick service sequence. Not all of this is in exact right order, but I just want to kind of cover the things that I want you doing as part of working on gas appliances. Okay, inspecting clean burners. The burners and the types of appliances we work on are generally quite accessible.

You can see them. Um, obviously if it's a if it's a pool heater and the whole thing's falling apart, you're not going to be able to. Cleaning it would also mean tearing it apart because it would just be rust. If if it's like rust on top of rust then you can't really clean that but just cleaning out s or other other things that are in there.

If you are working on a gas pool heater that's sitting on the ground, you do want to make sure that it's up off of the ground. If you start getting soil in the bottom of it and all that we do need to try to work to get that cleared out. get it up a little bit, maybe on some blocks or something. Um, those are that.

That can be really helpful. Um, check existing Co monitors and advise the client. Like we talked about, inspect and clean the flame. Rod The flame Rod is the flame sensor also known as the flame rectifier.

Um, that is just a piece of metal. That's all it is. Some people say, well don't clean that you'll damage it. They're thinking of the old Thermac couples.

You do not clean a Thermac couple. If you, if you clean a Thermac couple too harshly, you'll rub the Metal Coating off the outside and it will no longer be a thermocouple. A flame Rod is literally just a piece of Steel so you can clean it. What you don't want to do is is make it into a rough surface so it needs to be a smooth surface.

And that's why you use things like you know. people will say use a dollar bill or if you're real fancy, use a $100 bill. uh to clean it or a Brillo pad or something. that's you.

Know that that again you depending on how dirty is, that's what's going to make you decide how to clean it. In some cases you can even just use a paper towel or something like that to clean it off with. Um, a microfiber Towel works really well. It's probably my one of my favorites in most cases.

Um, you're not going to a lot of people say well don't get the oils on your hands on it, the oils will I mean again, Anything that can foul it could potentially cause a problem, but it's not like you have to treat it like a baby. you just don't want to break it. Um, and you want to make sure that it's clean. You also want to make sure that when I say inspect it you want to inspect and make sure that it's actually in the flame.

So that flame rod when the Flames running across it should be well immersed in the flame. Inspect the venting, combustion air, and combustion. Zone And and there's a lot of different I'm just going to do very basic here. there's more Advanced Techniques But the main thing I Want to say is just pay attention.

Where are we getting oxygen from? Always be thinking about that. When you're installing a furnace, you're installing a water heater. You're servicing one. Where's the oxygen coming from? Inspect piping, and check for gas leaks.

Um, pretty obvious. Make sure the pipe work is done appropriately. Make sure, uh, that you don't have any gas leaks and that's where your, um, your combustible gas leak detector comes in handy. It's not the same as a refrigerant leak detector, and it's not the same as a combustion analyzer.

And it's not the same as a CO monitor. Those are all different things, right. They all do different things. That's how we started this class.

Um, and if you weren't here for the last class, you can go back once it's up on YouTube. You can review the whole thing, run the system, inspect the flame, and look for displacement when the blower starts. So you're starting the furnace and you're watching it as that as that flame comes out and you're paying attention. Is this Are any of these flames impinging on any of the metal? Is it is? Everything aligned properly? Does it all look right? Does the flame color look like what it should look like? a nice blue flame, right? Most cases.

But then when that blower comes on because you have that lower compartment closed, you should make sure that all of a sudden you don't see a bunch of flame displacement. You don't see a bunch of orange happening as soon as that blower turns on, because that's an indication that your actual combustion Zone and the actual blower air are mixing And that's not a good thing. Make sense. We don't want the air from the blower and the air that's causing combustion to be mixing inside that furnace.

Um, the next thing is measure Co levels around the furnace and this is where you can just use your low-l personal protective. you just take just take a peek at it as you're running it. Okay, just making sure I'm not getting ambient carbon oxide I don't have it in the house when I was walking around setting the thermostat. Uh, measure Inlet and manifold pressure adjust to the middle of the manufacturer specs.

So that's where 3.5 comes in. 3.5 Ines of water column is between 3.3 and 3.8 That's the pressure that we generally want on the outlet of most natural gas appliances uh and again always refer to the manufacturer sticker. If You have a question and obviously if it's LPA propane then it's different. uh and then check the temperature rise and adjust air flow to the middle of the manufacturer specs and all this is is if you go, if you look on that same sticker, it's going to tell you what temperature rise that furnace should produce.

and it's a pretty big range so it may say you know something like 30 to 50. you know temperature rise. And so you take that probe and you put it in your supply duct and you're running your furnace. You look at your return air temperature.

You look at your supply air temperature and you want that difference to be right in that it's just like taking an air temperature split uh and an air conditioner. But it's just depending on the size of the Furnace that that's going to vary. And so you just make sure that because in a lot of these furnaces you have, you know speed Taps especially older ones. Um, so that you can actually adjust your fan speed.

You want to make sure that your heating air flow uh, is right in the middle of that range. Uh for temperature rise in the furnace? make sense. That was a lot. Um, but again, it's an overview it's preparing.

Next week we're going to talk about heat pumps. defrost all that kind of stuff. anything? Any questions about any of that? Uh, no good. So I have two different questions for So when we inspecting the for any gas leaks um, before and after install, should we doing it with garage door open closed? Does it matter? Again, it shouldn't really matter because again, um, if if you have so much such a leak that it's going to make a difference, whether garage door is open or closed, you're generally going to smell it.

You know you have those. You have those um, odorants that are added to gas specifically so you can notice it Again, Some people don't have a very good sense of smell. We don't want to rely on that. um, but generally speaking, if you have any significant gas leak, you're going to smell it.

But all you're doing is you're just taking that combustible gas leak detector. You're turning it on in a in a well vented area, you're moving it in and you're just scanning around all that piping with the gas valve on just to make sure that nothing's leaking. and then with the Co checking the levels. Does it matter if the uh, first door like the initial first cover is on or exposed out again? you want it to.

That doesn't really. Ma You have to have the blower door covered anytime you're operating a furnace. Um, so and I'll see guys do this. They'll run the furnace with just the button pushed in you, just that taped off.

Well, that's no bueno because obviously now it's sucking in from here and you have it's the same place your furnace is getting its air. That's not good, right? So you have to have that cover on. Um, and all you're doing is while you're letting it run, while you're checking that, um, that temperature rise, you're just sitting there just looking at it. You're not like setting it close, you're just you're just checking to make sure because again, these are calibrated to go in a very, very low range.

Um, for example, if you took a personal protective Co Monitor and you put it in a flu with high CO it would immediately foul the sensor and destroy the monitor. These monitors are designed to only deal in very very low ranges. Um, their sensors aren't even designed to deal with what say a combustion analyzer is designed to deal with So it's all just about like do I Am I showing Rising carbon monoxide levels in this area and again a lot of people will will say like well that's not good enough, you have to measure it in the flu and then you have to do full combustion analysis and all that and all what I say to those people is just remember you're talking about a market where nobody ever does that ever. And so just looking at carbon monoxide is a good start and getting into combustion analysis is the next step was that it? Those are the two.

Okay I wanted to revisit um, the pool heater outside in the pressure intakes because there are a lot more homes now being built with fresh air intakes and then also we are installing dehumidifiers Y and fresh A intakes. So if you have a gas pool heater outside and it's usually built right on the side of the house so it comes right up and hits the eaves. um, you have to be careful and and mindful of is there something there like a fresh air intake built into the eat and you don't want to install a fresh air intake on that side of the house where you could potentially be having that um uh, the the pool heater is exhausting and just kind of hitting the side of the house. the wall space there and that's actually one of the most common issues Bill Spone talks about this a lot.

Um, it's not. A lot of people imagine that it's like cracked Heat exchangers caused some of the greatest amounts of Co deaths, but actually recirculation of carbon oxide is was one of the higher reasons and he was actually involved in a case where that was the the the cause of I Don't know if it was death, but it was health issues. something pretty significant and so the same thing is also true. if you have a tankless water heater, a lot of times those are mounted right on the outside of the house and you do not want to have a fresh air intake either from intake either from a dehumidifier or going straight into the equipment anywhere near there.

and again like this is is why when I do these types of classes, it's sort of like yeah, but what did I learn Specifically, it's like, well, I'm I'm I'm wanting to teach you to train that spidey sense that that that little thing inside of you that says hold on hold on There was something about this that I was supposed to remember and what I don't want you to do is just push through that and move on I want you to pause and maybe re relook up this class, look up a video, talk to talk to a friend. you know, phone to a friend, whatever. Um, so that you don't just move on from it. Uh, because when you don't have reps on something and we don't get a lot of reps on gas, you don't do it all the time.

Um, you're going to forget this stuff, You you will. So I'm not telling you that you have to remember all of these details if it's been a while. but what I am saying is when you show back up now you need to make sure you re-remember it. You know that's how I start.

Every single podcast is the podcast that helps you remember some things. Uh, you forgot. how did I how do I not if I'm not in a mic I can't say it. The podcast that helps you remember some things that you don't know as well as some things you forgot to know in the first place.

The idea is like in a lot of cases, you did know something. but you show up and it's like uh now I'm forgetting how to do this and now go back and remember it before you move on and push through. That needs to get edited out of this video because I just look like a buffoon. Anybody else Hbac school app has nine panels on doing things like cleaning and checking the flameer rod, adjusting gas pressure, gas pressure checking gas pressure.

really detailed step by step. Um, so if you know for me, I've done it several times, but I'll often pull it out and just make sure I'm following all the steps because the gas furnace could be. you know it's It's been nine months since I've looked at a gas furnace right? So, um, it's so helpful to have those on there. You can just go pull them up step by step.

Yep, Yep. and actually that's if in the app. If you go into the part of the app called checklists, um, that's the easiest place to find it and it will actually take you step by step through each each. uh, part of these things and that's actually one of the most underused parts of the app is checklist, but so check that out.

Bird is also going to happily share those nine panels with you in videos today because he's the trainer and he loves to train so much so he's definitely going to make sure that happens for all of you. I'm sure. So uh. anyway, thank you all appreciate it.

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