NCI Article Library

High-Performance HVAC Resources

Coziahr Heating & A/C – Council Bluffs, Iowa

Dave Coziahr operates a small HVAC contracting and energy services company in Council Bluffs, Iowa. We selected Dave as August's NCI Contractor of the Month primarily because of his passion for testing HVAC systems. In college Dave was introduced to the SMACNA Systems...

Corcoran Heating & Air Conditioning – Schaumburg, IL

Member of the Month: Corcoran Heating & Air Conditioning - Schaumburg, IL Tom Corcoran is our April NCI Member of the Month. Tom got started in the HVAC business when he didn't make the hockey team in college and followed a buddy into trade school nearly 30 years...

Cool Weather Testing in Cooling Mode

Measuring wetbulb temperatures on a cooling system under a low or no load situation is a whole new ballgame. What happens is that a system operating in cool weather in a building with no load on it generates extremely rapid temperature changes. If you take the...

Converting High Static Readings to Diagnostic Sales

Include the ducts in your service agreements by adding static pressure testing. This test adds a new dimension to service by including the entire system, not just the equipment. It provides better service to your customers, more opportunity to increase system...

Converting Duct Area to Square Feet

What's a CIM? Hint: CFM = Area x Velocity. CIM is Cubic Inches per Minute. Typically, it's a huge number that you get when traversing a duct and calculating CFM, but you forget to divide the area of the duct by 144 to convert square inches to square feet. To save you...

CO Tip – Plugging PVC Flue Test Holes

David Richardson, of Frankfort Kentucky, Tech Tip

CO Monitor Sales Tips

We received two great tips on creative ways of selling Low-level Carbon Monoxide Monitors and using them to help close sales. The first tip is from NCT Member, John Jones of ABC HVAC CO., Clarkston, MI. When one of John's service techs offers the NSI 3000 low-level CO...

CO Monitor Interference

Over the years there have been many reports of CO Alarms and Monitors going off or showing low CO levels on their digital read outs and yet no detectable CO problems were uncovered. The problem here is that Monitors, Alarms, even Analyzers, using electrochemical...

“Air Free” CO or “As Measured” Carbon Monoxide?

Jim Davis, Senior Instructor, National Comfort Institute "Air Free" CO or "As Measured" Carbon Monoxide? by Jim Davis The subject of carbon monoxide (CO) Air Free and As Measured is not new, but still causes confusion due to many conflicting protocols. ANSI standard...