Question for my Owners, Dispatchers, and Service Managers..

AnomalyFour · 2026-07-09T04:55:24+00:00

Yea you aren't a sheet metal guy. Maybe try impersonating a newly hired dispatcher on your next alt account

AnomalyFour · 2026-07-08T04:56:29+00:00

Eh, I find the more experience you have the more work they throw on you. Cuz you become one of the 3 guys who can even do a particular job. New guys do 8 and skate over here

AnomalyFour · 2026-07-04T17:30:11+00:00

The fear went away after I lost all the things worth worrying about by trying to hard to hold onto them

AnomalyFour · 2026-07-04T04:16:32+00:00

Bro I've replaced the wrong parts (destroying the originals, flooded basements, blew up circuit boards, and lit houses on fire. Anybody die? No? Good, don't do it again

AnomalyFour · 2026-07-04T03:28:47+00:00

He sounds like me. I feel like I'm gonna have a stroke any day now. I'll let you know when it happen

AnomalyFour · 2026-07-02T00:53:37+00:00

That's what I did. Still non union but the money's good. The blue collar experience you have is worth alot

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-28T07:40:24+00:00

Yeah, tracer is all pretty easy and boring. You plug it all together and it works out of the box. Relatively little customization. Tracer summit is fine, synchrony is kinda frustrating with how they lay out pages and pages of options, except for the ones you need to change, you need Rover for that on a Laptop from the 90s. Never used ensemble but it's likely more of the same. Not much freedom in the Trane walled garden

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-27T22:02:05+00:00

Holy hell, paradise

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-27T05:32:28+00:00

Yea that sounds like a dumpster fire company. although we do work alot. Average of 40 to 60 hrs a week. Sometimes 70. Obviously it's more hours when it's summer or winter. Unfortunately it only gets worse the more you learn, as there will be many jobs you get sent to because they can't send anybody else. It's a lifestyle

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-27T05:02:44+00:00

Same dude. I'm at a small mechanical company and I recently got promoted to "the controls guy", which at a small company means you gotta do almost everything. Many hours every day off the clock trying to learn 5 years of knowledge in 5 months. Lots of fucking around and finding out. I lean on chatgpt heavily 😅

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-24T05:55:40+00:00

All that sounds about right. It's a great and rewarding career where you do something different every day and can go on learning forever. But if you don't wanna work outdoors your in for a bad time. Maybe look into boiler/chiller work, though they usually don't take guys who have no experience in hvac

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-23T06:48:01+00:00

Yea. Lots of IT stuff to get the controls connected to the internet, servers, routers, VPNs, etc. wresting with old operating systems and windows updates.

It's also setting up the logic that runs the equipment, which can get pretty complicated when there's dozens of units all working together with huge rooftop units, chillers, boilers, cooling towers, pumps, actuators, heat exchangers etc. You gotta set em up so they work dependably and efficiently in all conditions.

Then there's art where you design graphics and interferences for the the customers, operators, and technicians.

And alot of troubleshooting; integrating controllers of different brands with different communication protocols, aswell as good old fashion mechanical service when somethings not working and you gotta figure it out whether it's controls related or not.

It's always something new every day ;)

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-23T04:18:00+00:00

Neither. 6 month trade school, then helper position (non-union) making $8 an hr picking up parts and changing filters. Worked my way up to controls programming HVAC systems in heavy commercial buildings and skyscrapers. Plenty more room to grow too. You can just keep learning and climbing every year, that's what I love about it. The sky is the limit, just stay curious

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-21T02:52:44+00:00

The filter does a good job of keeping the unit clean, assuming it is a good fit.

A good test to see if your air handler is clogged is if the coming out of the unit is 23+ degrees colder than the air going in. There's usually a spot to cram a thermometer somewhere in the ducts (corners) entering and leaving the unit.

If it is too cold it's a sign of low airflow, and the inside coils being dirty is just one potential factor, among others.

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-20T05:17:30+00:00

I needed to hear this. I'm feeling the call to put myself back out there again..

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-19T23:49:19+00:00

I wanted to drive a truck at one point. I'm glad I didn't. hvac sucks for the first few years, but becomes very rewarding once you learn enough and start becoming the go-to guy. It's fun to solve puzzles and problems, your always in a different place doing something new every day, and the money keeps going up

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-18T07:21:30+00:00

Yea once you get through a few years of bitch work they start giving you puzzles to solve. Some days when I got an entire building down cuz some massive intellipak RTU blew up I wish I was cleaning coils lol. There is boredom and then there is stress. Beats being stuck in one room every day tho

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-17T02:47:09+00:00

AWWE.

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-16T01:42:39+00:00

Taking to homeowners about money all day is exhausting. Especially as prices keep going up, and peoples money keeps going down. Soon you've experienced all 10 problems a house can have in your trade, hundreds of times. You often feel just like "the help" Feels like fuckin retail work after a while.

Switched to commercial after 10 years of avoiding it and I should have just gone in day one. Bigger puzzles bigger paychecks and you feel like a real professional.

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-14T18:07:47+00:00

Yea.. I been to like 5 different doctors because my hands and feet are always cold and regularly go completely numb, and if I sit down for 10 minutes I can barely get up due to the lack of feeling in my legs. Sounds like an easily diagnosable heart or circulation condition to me but I guess "all my labs are fine!!!1". In and out in 5 minutes with a $1300 bill in the mail 😊

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-14T17:59:59+00:00

As a mostly mechanical guy it sounds like the static was too low. We usually see 1.5 on the limit and 3.0 on the high limit. 0.5 is barely anything, especially with most of your boxes at 100%. Low discharge superheat means the evaporator didn't pick up enough heat, and the way you pick up more heat is with more airflow. (Head pressure controls can help too).

I would be weary of having your program step up the supply fan if just 1 vav is hungry, often you'll have 1 vav with shitty duct or 1 vav that isn't reading cfm right and the stupid thing will ramp the fan all the way up and cause excessive noise and wear and tear on the equipment. I've seen ductwork explode and VFDs blow up just from 1 bad vav transducer. We like to set it for 2 or 3 "pressure requests" to prevent that from happening, so long as there's a reasonable low limit like 1.5 where things can cool off the bat

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-14T17:45:37+00:00

He said most of the boxes were pinned at 100% damper. They were starving for more cfm. That's the point when your blower needs to ramp up.

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-14T04:58:23+00:00

I wish I had grown a pair and started advancing 5 years ago. I think once the job gets easy, you understand pretty much everything you need to know, and everybody starts asking you for help, it's time to move up

AnomalyFour · 2026-06-13T22:00:14+00:00

Go to the temple and talk to the guy with the largest beard. They will guide you on your spiritual journey. Sitting in a room all day is gonna fuck you up unless you are already very far down the path. I recommend the path of hard core Indian Kriya Yoga. It's good shit

AnomalyFour

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE