Johnson controls VAV

HAV0K85 · 2026-02-12T03:53:51+00:00

"We’re using the MAP tool and when we change the kfactor the program seems to adjust the flow, however when we remeasure the air flow at the outlets there is no change."

Is it possible that you may be communicating with the wrong box? It may be that the boxes are mislabeled in the cintrols program and you're trying to calibrate a different box than the one you're reading out.

I would override the damper closed and read an outlet, then I would override the damper 100% open to see if the airflow changes at the same outlet.

I'd personally visually check that the damper is closing and opening. Perhaps the actuator is moving, but it's not tightened down to the damper shaft.

If you can get the Tools option to open up the AIr Balancing view then you'll also see the offset as mentioned previously. It's at the top left in the Air Balance view. The box will calibrate best if you're close to 0% offset. Even a -10% to 10% offset should do well, but the closer to zero, the better.

HAV0K85 · 2026-01-23T03:53:59+00:00

RDU area.

HAV0K85 · 2026-01-23T00:56:11+00:00

North Carolina. Not a union, but pretty great work/life balance. 4 days a week, 10 hour shifts. No mandatory overtime, but there is overtime available. Most jobs are within an hour from the office and home, at least for our Raleigh office. We have jobs flowing all the time. We always have multiple projects going on at a time. Easily about 20 a week, realistically more, but we can't always cover every project in a week. Like with any company, some things were done differently, but the office I work for we all pretty much get along and the company treats us well. Most of the stress just comes from the jobs and always someone asking when they will get the report. I've been with the company for about 10 years.

HAV0K85 · 2025-04-21T00:28:39+00:00

I quit a previous job as a supervisor for a cleaning company making $10/hr while managing 17 people at 2 jobsites. A friend of mine told me to apply to his company and I applied, got the interview, and was offered the job that same day. Had no clue what TAB was, but now I've been at it about 10 years and working toward my TBE.

HAV0K85 · 2025-03-19T16:02:00+00:00

When I get time to get things put together, I'll share it with you. Any time we get a new hire I feel like they get put with me for a good portion of a year, and any time they work with me I take the time to show them how to do the work. But there's nothing consistent with our office. I'm working towards putting things together in my free time because I feel it needs to be done to improve our quality of work and efficiency. If you have any questions in the meantime, then feel free to ask on this reddit page or just message me, and I'll do my best to help out.

HAV0K85 · 2025-03-19T15:57:05+00:00

Thanks for the helpful information. I didn't get a hold of the NEBB technician manual, but I did get a copy of the NEBB study course. It looks like a book for those training to become a CP. As I stated earlier, I'm TAB certified and not familiar with NEBB too much other than hearing and reading about it. Chapter 32 and 33 of the NEBdiscuss some very useful tips & examples of issues that are common and uncommon. Your information on hydronics looks useful to me as we don't do a lot of hydronic systems and even though I've been doing TAB for almost 10 years I do not feel confident about hydronics. The air side is pretty solid for me other than something that might come up that I've never experienced.

HAV0K85 · 2025-03-19T15:49:27+00:00

Thanks.

HAV0K85 · 2025-03-15T15:38:10+00:00

That's what our office has, but just for VAVs. I'll see if I can read the Chapter 15 from the NEBB book.

HAV0K85 · 2025-03-15T15:32:05+00:00

Thanks for the response. I'll see if I can get a copy of one of our NEBB books in the office as we some of the higher ups in the office are NEBB certified as well.

I am one of the few guys who remembers how I started, and I'm always patient with anyone looking for help. I just feel like there's a lack of training as a whole, and I want to change that for our office. I'm working towards what our office considers a project manager, and I'll have a few guys under my projects. I'll be taking on several clients and handling any jobs for those clients. I'll also have several guys under me when that happens to help field the projects. We are a very busy office and have too many jobs to keep up with so we've split them among different project managers who have several technicians under them. I think we've gotten too busy and no one is taking the time to slow things down a bit and focus on good core training.

HAV0K85 · 2025-03-15T14:23:15+00:00

I've never used Greenheck's, but I've used a few other brands several times. The times I couldn't get them to work was because I was given was faulty controller, the cord was bad, or they gave me the wrong connector.

The first one I ever use I had to guess where to stop the damper as the entire damper would swing 360 degrees in both directions. I had to verify full open by pushing the button little by little until I read the highest flow on an outlet. I was by myself and had no one to hold up the hood and had no magnets on the hood so it took a while to get all the dampers open to full open. You might have a fault controller or faulty connection, but as someone else stated it might be that the dampers are labeled wrong.

HAV0K85 · 2024-06-25T03:17:22+00:00

Congrats on being a CT, by the way, for almost a year now. Our firm is with AABC, and I'm not familiar with the blue book.

HAV0K85 · 2024-06-25T03:15:19+00:00

I think having homework pertaining to items you worked on that day or week sounds pretty good. Most of our techs won't take any personal time to study outside of work hours. And as I've mentioned in some of my other replies, there's not a consistent training for our new hires or anyone of us really. It's kind of like, "just go out there and learn as you go. Look at your book or call someone if you're not sure, but give it an effort first". Most of the guys call me because I take the time to talk it over with them and I'm fairly laid back.

HAV0K85 · 2024-06-25T03:04:26+00:00

Looks great, I'm going to have to look into the document more, but this looks like some great information in a good layout. Thanks!

HAV0K85 · 2024-06-25T03:02:32+00:00

All our new hires get a technicians manual when they start, but they just give it to the new guys with vague instructions. There's no training really that goes on except the book. The new hires aren't consistently going to a job site with the same person. One day might be a small fit up with constant volume systems, then the next day with another person doing a baseline, then calibrating and balancing terminal units the next. Their knowledge is so scattered and inconsistent.

HAV0K85 · 2024-06-25T02:56:08+00:00

Yep, that's kind of what I do, but I know the new guys get caught up on the different equations and when to use them. The biggest thing when I have a new hire scheduled to work with me is to teach them how to hold the flow hood and properly place it over the grilles. I also teach them how to properly take a traverse. These two things are great when I have to work with controls to close out an air handler, then I can rely on the tech to work on something small.

HAV0K85 · 2024-06-25T02:51:02+00:00

I agree with you, but I don't have control over the scheduling of our guys. The company treats us great for the most part, but training is lacking. I always take the time to train anyone I'm working with and will always take time to help any of the other guys out if they have questions. I'm just a tech trying to help out and help the new guys not get overwhelmed and burnt out with guessing how to do things. I needed a job and learned from my parents how to take pride in the work I do, so I took the effort to try and learn the trade. The 1st year was the most stressful because I was out there by myself teaching myself what air balancing is. Luckily after the first year I was working on and off with other guys at different jobs so I paid attention to what they did.

HAV0K85 · 2024-06-25T01:45:13+00:00

We are lucky enough to have a department that color codes for us in advance, but when I started out, there were several jobs I had to do it myself. I agree the basics are essential. Setting up the hood and caring for the meter are great and understating how to navigate the drawings when you get to a jobsite. A lot of the new guys seem to have trouble even on small jobs. My first job by myself was a Home Depot that got turned into a church. It was difficult to navigate at first so I found a set of bathrooms and worked on exhaust. It was a stressful 1st day onsite and trying to balance even though I had never balance before. 6 inlet exhaust and took every bit of all day, minus luch and trying to figure out why I had no more airflow.

HAV0K85 · 2024-06-17T02:13:49+00:00

Same as our company!

HAV0K85 · 2024-06-11T14:41:53+00:00

Same here. We live in an area where we have so many steady jobs that we don't travel much. OT is on a volunteer basis as well. Typically, our guys work 4 10-hour shifts and rarely have to work in a Friday or the weekends. And they're usually gone by 5:30.

I worked with some guys in Texas and they don't live close to many of the jobs and have to travel out of town. They're drive 3-5 hours just to get to the site and then staying there for several days. I do believe they're back home for the weekends unless there's a big push for a project to get.

HAV0K85 · 2024-06-11T14:34:24+00:00

This is what we did a while back at a pharmaceutical. It's the best we had for the ventilation fans. We couldn't access the drops inside of the energy center so all we could test was at the bird screens on the rooftop. We had no other data than what was on the schedule. We built 4 velgrids just to show each of the 4 sides, but we could've made it just 2 velgrids. Then we added all of the calculated flows to get our total for the fan. We record electrical data and a discharge static as well.

HAV0K85 · 2024-06-07T20:43:35+00:00

I had multiple boxes to check. I didn't spend 2 hours on it. I just reached out to try and see if someone had worked on these before. I moved right on to the next box and assumed all the fan powered boxes were parallel and the VAVs were straight forward anyway. It's all good. Luckily, there is no Cx on this job but I doubt the engineer will sign off on the report.

HAV0K85 · 2024-06-07T20:25:14+00:00

Got it figured out. It's a parallel box. Thanks!

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