Residential Combustion Analysis

Residential Combustion Analysis
Combustion testing. The complicated question is, with nothing to adjust on a modern gas furnace aside from gas pressure and airflow, why even perform one? After all, of what benefit could it really be? Really? Why measures what you cannot adjust?

The answer is simple even though the combustion process is often not adjustable, the combustion process is dynamic, many factors of the installation and operation can and do affect the combustion process. With out verifying the combustion process is safe, stable and within the manufacturers or industry standard guidelines you are putting yourself and your customers at risk. Simply, what you cannot see can hurt you so the only way to know what you don’t know is to measure.

Don't Blow and Go Without Checking the CO

There is nothing more exciting than finding sources of energy loss through thermal imaging and blower door testing. Test in repair and test out is the mantra of technicians across the country. What we need to remember however is fixing problems of energy loss through the envelope can cause a host of new problems, problems that if not properly diagnosed that can lead to the death of you or your customers. Test in, continuously test, and test out with regards to carbon monoxide (CO) needs to be added to our call.

Making Measurements

Customer service aside, what is a service technician’s job? I can sum it up in a few words; simply it is to make measurements. We make measurements to select the proper equipment, and make it perform as well and safely in the field as it does in the factory or laboratory. Measurements are made to prove facts, and the fact is good measurements can be used for you or against you. 

Why don’t technicians make good measurements? The answers are plentiful and almost painful. Not enough time. Hard to get the same results twice. The equipment “works” without proper setup even if it doesn’t work right. No idea what to measure; primarily I find technicians have never been instructed how and why. Let’s face it; we have service technicians with 20 years of experience and those with one year of experience 20 times. Many keep repeating the same incorrect procedures and processes with substandard measurement instrumentation and techniques over and over again each time expecting a different or better result. One might just as easily chalk all this up to insanity.