What did we do today?

[cesarnino]

together with my boss troubleshoot a japanese Blast Freezer..... even though we cant read japanese heheehh... but stil able to solve it.

[monkey spanners]

Been back out to a customer against my better judgement as it took them over a year to pay last time....

And just to prove that the gods were smiling on me today when i was there i fell over in the cow yard. Not your normal falling over mind but the sort where you go horizontal while airbourn and then hit the ground like a sack of sh!t, which as it happens is exactly what i ended up looking like

Jon

[eggs]

Quoted a job on the spot £two bags of sand + the Vodka...............only to be told I had got the gig and the next nearest price was £4200 + Vat...........WTF have I missed???

Eggs

[glenn1340]

Quoted a job on the spot £two bags of sand + the Vodka...............only to be told I had got the gig and the next nearest price was £4200 + Vat...........WTF have I missed???

Eggs

I know the feeling. I quoted a used dessicant air dryer for £600 including installation. The customer nearly bit my arm off to get it. I later learned he was offered one for £1800 PLUS the installation. Duuuuuuuuuuuh

[Brian_UK]

Helped some of the other guys dismantle and remove a solar water pre-heating system that has only been installed for about two years. Mind you the install was crap and the gas fired heaters did most of the work anyway.

Tomorrow I'm meeting with the clients Carbon Reduction person about reducing their footprint with the AC on another site. Go figure.

[monkey spanners]

I recently installed a bmt and cond unit a customer had bought, took about a week, for 2.1k, while doing this found out previous company last year charged 3.8k to change a 3hp scroll, badly...

Then on the other hand one of my competitors recently quote £350 fitted for a water pump when the genuine part cost me £440 from the uk agent????

Gets you so you don't know which way to turn

[eggs]

Eggs is thinking???.....???.......???.."If anyone would like to set up a cartel to narrow the gap between our small company prices and them of the big boys.......mail me on my yet to be disclosed super secret e-mail address.

The job I mentioned earlier was essentially a back to back Tosh DI WM, 6.8kw. Straight swap out.

It reminded me of a job I did as a labour only subbie a few years ago. Two 10k wall mounts and two 10 kw ducted units, all Daikin.

NHS paid £27k.

If I had done the job direct I would have charged about £14-15K.........Where TF did the other £13k go? The salesman's M3, the director's Portuguese villa ????

Jeeeeeez, one day I will learn the art.

**Edit**

Come to think of it the NHS must have paid more. I probably got about £2k labour only, the a/c contractor charged the M&E contractor £27k then they will have put their mark-up on.

The mind boggles??
Eggs

[mikeref]

Yeh Eggs... have to be careful as what goes around comes around. Done myself out by not including parts or charging all the hours in the invoice supplied to customer. Charge too much and someone, sooner or later will find out and spread the word. (Psssst, don't get Eggs, he's too expensive!). So what did you miss on the "vodka" job?

[paul_h]

It's hit and miss for me, so I would subscribe to you super secret email newsletter.
Sometimes too cheap. Sometimes I quote a job based on the same rates and told too expensive.
Doesn't really matter to me, quote what's fair to yourself, if you are cheap compared to the competition it doesn't matter, you are not being ripped off.
If told you ask too much, too bad, you're not willing to work for less good luck to others that are.

Also best to find regular customers that trust you and just ask for stuff to be done (quote up front though as usual and just say yes or no), rather than run around to the whim of blow in random people shopping around for 10+ quotes.
Of course the regulars will look elsewhere if they hear that they've been charged too much by you, but if your prices are fair that won't happen.
So just look after yourself, try to avoid getting up there in the rip off big leagues, or down there with the cheap split bashers that spend all their time 'winning' jobs by the random one off customers shopping around for rock bottom prices.

[MikeHolm]

Helped some of the other guys dismantle and remove a solar water pre-heating system that has only been installed for about two years. Mind you the install was crap and the gas fired heaters did most of the work anyway.

Tomorrow I'm meeting with the clients Carbon Reduction person about reducing their footprint with the AC on another site. Go figure.

Brian, what kind of solar system was it and what was wrong. I put in 3 in the last two weeks so i'm quite interested.

[Brian_UK]

Mike, the system was a Veisman 200 (?) 4 x Vitasol 200 tube panels plus tank, pumpset and controller.

Nothing too much wrong with the system apart from a poor design of the overall hot water service system.

System layout was CWS into Solar tank and then on to two gas fired hot water generators. Problems started from day one in that it was never commissioned properly, manufacturers didn't even have any records of the install site!

There wasn't any interconnection between the solar tank, the HWS secondary return or of the controls, either the gas side or solar. It was not possible to perform pasteurise the solar tank as it stood.

The solar panel temperature sensor was in the wrong place and wouldn't detect any solar gain until the tubes started boiling, slight exaggeration, yes I found the cycle pump command when we took over serving etc.

Eventually the client (Council) was too embarrassed to have the system non-functioning without spending more money so decided to remove it and any evidence of it's existence.

If you want a second hand system, Devon UK, give me a PM.

[eggs]

Mike, the system was a Veisman 200 (?) 4 x Vitasol 200 tube panels plus tank, pumpset and controller.

Nothing too much wrong with the system apart from a poor design of the overall hot water service system.

System layout was CWS into Solar tank and then on to two gas fired hot water generators. Problems started from day one in that it was never commissioned properly, manufacturers didn't even have any records of the install site!

There wasn't any interconnection between the solar tank, the HWS secondary return or of the controls, either the gas side or solar. It was not possible to perform pasteurise the solar tank as it stood.

The solar panel temperature sensor was in the wrong place and wouldn't detect any solar gain until the tubes started boiling, slight exaggeration, yes I found the cycle pump command when we took over serving etc.

Eventually the client (Council) was too embarrassed to have the system non-functioning without spending more money so decided to remove it and any evidence of it's existence.

If you want a second hand system, Devon UK, give me a PM.

Was the original system installed by ROK by any chance?

[MikeHolm]

Brian, I certainly would but its a bit far to Toronto for shipping. I am sure some enterprising dude over there could use it. I've put in lots of Viessmann stuff, all good in my opinion so it is a shame to see a c**p install like that. All the guts were there so it probably wouldn't have taken too much to get it going. 4-20 tube panels is good for around 8 people and you would need a 500L tank or 2 panels and a 300L tank for two smaller systems.

Cheers

[r.bartlett]

I'll have them if not wanted :-)

[Brian_UK]

Spot on Eggs, one virtual doughnut on the way.

[monkey spanners]

Picked up new (to me) van, zoom zoom

Just got to swap all my stuff into it now

[MikeHolm]

Spot on Eggs, one virtual doughnut on the way.

Ok, who is ROK?

[mikeref]

Picked up new (to me) van, zoom zoom

Just got to swap all my stuff into it now

Might be fast now but see what it's like when tools and gear are loaded in.. Also, now you will find all thoes lost items hidden in the corners.

[monkey spanners]

Might be fast now but see what it's like when tools and gear are loaded in.. Also, now you will find all thoes lost items hidden in the corners.

I had to tidy out my garage to make room for swaping stuff over etc and found about £300 worth of compressor oil about £200 worth of milk tank spares and 130kg of scrap copper at £4 a kilo! Haven't even started on the van yet but have filled a 10yrd skip so far

Jon

[Brian_UK]

Ok, who is ROK?

ROK was, they collapsed least year, a national building chain who worked on local authority construction.

I think they had the ability to fit something without ever reading the instructions, I am willing to be corrected.

[mikeref]

Yep, the nice and nasties of vehicle or garage clean-out. Every year, at the end of june,(being the end of financial year here in Aus), the ute gets stripped out...tools/parts/rubbish. All out, then back of ute scrub and hose out. Good part is finding missing supplies, bad side is finding 10 of them that have to be accounted for to do annual stocktake. As june is Winter here, not much work on so i take two days + carton of beer to complete, and in two weeks, it's back to an organised mess again.. Had to strip everything out some months ago as a large tree frog died in there, nasty smell as it baked in the summer heat..Mike.

[MikeHolm]

ROK was, they collapsed least year, a national building chain who worked on local authority construction.

I think they had the ability to fit something without ever reading the instructions, I am willing to be corrected.

Karma strikes again

[MikeHolm]

I had to tidy out my garage to make room for swaping stuff over etc and found about £300 worth of compressor oil about £200 worth of milk tank spares and 130kg of scrap copper at £4 a kilo! Haven't even started on the van yet but have filled a 10yrd skip so far

Jon

My mate just took $1000 of aluminum in one day to the scrap yard. Hasn't touched his copper yet, estimates it at about $7-8000. Bit of a horder.

[cadwaladr]

changed the cyl heads on a grasso rc3111,changed the oil ,filters ,washed out the crankcase cleaned out the expansion valve in line filters on the evaps ,then topped up the gas in a trailer unit,went to another customer checked a gah unit for refrigerant leak

[mikeref]

How about this, a planned shutdown of kitchen coldroom for evaporator replacement. Required Plumbers to lift roof over coldroom as this >< much space available to place timber and hanger bolts. When evap in place, roofing sheets to be refitted and plumbers move on, well, started out a fine sunny day that quickly turned sour. At the worst possible time, out of no-where comes this downpour, 3" or 75mm, and try as they did to tarp the roofless kitchen, their attempts failed. Ever tried to pipe up evaporator when water is streaming into the room. Open junction boxes on roof of coldroom made it easy for rain to wet all electrics. Tools and materials were spread out and unfortunately soaked. Some days it makes you want to pack up and go home!!

[MikeHolm]

Started to set up to bring tools to the roof today when my helper fell off the ladder and got a pelvic fracture. Our first accident in 25 years. It was his own fault but man I wish I could have prevented it. Feel like s**t.

[Brian_UK]

Gee, that's a tough one, hope he heals quickly.

[r.bartlett]

Swapped out a small condensing unit for a freezer with one of my engineers. We got it all charged up and running nicely only to find I'd put the LH/HP connecting lines on the wrong way round.Start again
Swapped both over and restarted then when going to take off the gauges we found out I'd put them onto the wrong port on the service valves..Start again (again)

Doesn't look like I am going to be "engineer of the week" this week

[Brian_UK]

And your staff member was too polite to mention it I suppose.

[MikeHolm]

Gee, that's a tough one, hope he heals quickly.

thanks dude

[r.bartlett]

And your staff member was too polite to mention it I suppose.

He was fairly cool about it and I did get an ice flaker working which he was having trouble with (not that I did much...)

I guess I am just getting a bit ring rusty these days..

[monkey spanners]

Started to set up to bring tools to the roof today when my helper fell off the ladder and got a pelvic fracture. Our first accident in 25 years. It was his own fault but man I wish I could have prevented it. Feel like s**t.

I hope your helper makes a speedy recovery

I've been lucky enough not to break any bones so far but have fallen off a ladder when the fork lift driver parked with the forks up in the air, me in my usual rush ran up the ladder, DING!!! woke up some time later on the ground, no sense, no feeling as they say

Jon

[paul_h]

Now I'm semi retired for the year. Still got work from last month to do, and get about 4 jobs per day. But it's nice now and I can relax a bit.
Still waiting for the bloody daikin parts from 18/2/2011 http://www.refrigeration-engineer.co...874#post223874.
Still waiting on other parts from others earlier in this month too.
But now I can just cruise along, not get so many calls and finish up old jobs and get paid rather than spend all day on the phone.
autumn retirement is nice
Things to do:
Make sure there's no advertising next summer at all, even if I have to remove my webpage.
Find a small self employed specialist installer who does good work and give them most of the installs.
Avoid chinese brand units. Some miracles were performed recently, but not enough, need some blueway wall split parts now or it's a difficult 2nd storey roof replacement. Again p1ssed of tenants who have stopped paying rent and going to move out because the a/c doesn't work. Least the r/e agents always willing to go pana or mits when I install to avoid these crappy chinese brands, but I'm stuck with a lot of existing ones. Going to try a fan motor from a omni, maybe it fits the blueway.

edit: also nearly every job is an a/c leaking water recently!?
When I bought a wet an dry vac I thought it would be useful to unblock drains by sucking the dirt through.
Never got a chance to use it.
every ducted has the emergency drain pan plumbed into the one drain line, so can't suck out the evap drain. Nearly all ducted units are like this here, stupid installers making the drain pan pointless.
every split has had the drain outlet inaccessible, or has leaked water due to cracks in the chassis, the maunfacturer foam insulation not taped up so pipes sweating, or slightly short of refrigerant, or drain goes uphill. Any number of things basically, none of which I can use my vacuum to do the job in 5min...

Speaking of drains, this summer I've seen a ducted unit that has no p trap and it runs to the gutter. There's no hole in the gutter, it just butts up hard against it to terminate it.
Seen ducted units with no drain fitted to the coil, it just dribbles in the drain pan below...
Saw a wall split on an internal wall today, couldn't find the pump or drain. Pulled the unit half off the wall, found a loose floppy drain hose, it just drained into the wall cavity!
Not to mention all the wall splits on exterior walls that the installer just left the units drain hose hanging outside and dripping down the wall from up high, ie not bothering to fit any length ofof drain pipe or conduit.
Also couse all the loosely connected drains held with nothing but duct tape coming loose, dripping inside down the wall on a LH side penetration, or down the pipe capping and wiring into the isolator if the drain connection is outside.

I'm getting fairly sick of condensate water and drains at the moment

[MikeHolm]

I hope your helper makes a speedy recovery

I've been lucky enough not to break any bones so far but have fallen off a ladder when the fork lift driver parked with the forks up in the air, me in my usual rush ran up the ladder, DING!!! woke up some time later on the ground, no sense, no feeling as they say

Jon

Try this on for size. No one really likes inspectors, but when you gotta go, ya gotta go and sometimes cranes get in the way but it can be worth it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6A9K0jhZ5M

Accidents do happen...

[Brian_UK]

We finally got an offer on the house today so it looks like we could be moving soon.

More trips to the dump now before the weekend fishing.

[r.bartlett]

We finally got an offer on the house today so it looks like we could be moving soon.

More trips to the dump now before the weekend fishing.

Fair play Brian -off to somewhere nice ?

[Brian_UK]

Fair play Brian -off to somewhere nice ?

Nice? Depends on how you look at it.

Hoping to move nearer work, around the Torbay/Newton Abbot area; presently doing about 42000 miles a year which is getting a bit much as well as making me expensive to employ.

Seen a few possibilities on the web just got to narrow it down and wind up the agents.

[paul_h]

Now I'm semi retired for the year. Still got work from last month to do, and get about 4 jobs per day. But it's nice now and I can relax a bit.

Spoke too soon, still busy. Every day above 31C here still, and it's supposed to be Autumn! Heaps of calls monday, and nearly every one a drain/water leak problem, what the hell?

Drop kicks from daikin still stuffing me around for parts ordered 18/2.
First they did nothing with the order, then waiting for payment (they had me cc details, but expected me to call them), then "oh, it's out of stock" for a week, then delivered to the wrong address. A comedy of errors as they say.
It's not like they'd be busy, it has never been summer in the eastern states this year! Pretty much nothing for them to do. Not touching another daikin I think.

The late hot weather is good for my chillies though
got dorset, trinidad scorpion, bhut jolokia, 7 pot, chocolate habereros, scotch bonnet, thai birdseye, cayenne just starting to flower and recover from bug and aphid attacks (damn ants!). Japeleno and baby birdseye almost dead, no leaves left after the aphids, all dropping off.

[r.bartlett]

The late hot weather is good for my chillies though
got dorset, trinidad scorpion, bhut jolokia, 7 pot, chocolate habereros, scotch bonnet, thai birdseye, cayenne just starting to flower and recover from bug and aphid attacks (damn ants!). Japeleno and baby birdseye almost dead, no leaves left after the aphids, all dropping off.

Can I have some seeds please as I am quite getting into growing chillis :-)

[mikeref]

Must have been oldies day out today., no matter where i went there was someone holding up the traffic, and several vehicles following behind him just stayed in line?? yesterday must have been the enforcements day out... no matter where i went.. you know the rest. Everywhere is the clue!

[paul_h]

Can I have some seeds please as I am quite getting into growing chillis :-)

Yeah maybe later. Right now they are no good for seeds and there's not much growing on them anyway due to aphids).
I'm keeping them all together to maximise pollination to get heaps of chillies next month, it make them easier to look after them and have them all in the sunniest spot right now when they're all together.
No good to collect seeds from for now, as there is going to be cross pollination so the seeds will just bear hybrids.
After chilli growth has died down a bit, (and I cut through 30yrs worth of old garden full of vines and crap to make room), I'll separate the plants as much as possible and try to hand pollinate them, so whatever grows will be a pure strain which I can save the seeds from.

[MikeHolm]

20 to 1 water and dish soap can take care of the aphids but might take a couple of applications

[r.bartlett]

20 to 1 water and dish soap can take care of the aphids but might take a couple of applications

Be careful on the mix I went in too strong on the soap and lost 6 great plants :-(

[paul_h]

I didn't do too well either. Used a 1/4 tspn of detergent in 2 cups of water and 1/4 cup of oil. That's a solution I've heard of and decided to try.
I thought the detergent was there just to make the oil and water miscible, and it's the oil that traps and drowns them?
Anyway, some leaves going black on the chillies, but looks like they survive. Got a bit of overspray on the tomatoes, and they look really sick and will probably die.

[eggs]

What is it about growing chillies at the moment?

I bought some cheap seeds a few months ago from Lidl to make wine from. It now seems everyone is growing them.
I have a kitchen window sill full of jalapeños all destined to drown in an alcoholic haze

Eggs

ps, yes the bog paper is in the fridge

[paul_h]

Finally fitted the daikin PCB I've been waiting 5 weeks for.
It's nice when there's just 1 hour in your life that things go right.
That PCB fixed the a/c, plus this afternoon I had a DOA call from a customer that I do warranty for, spoke to the installer, found out they didn't connect comms, so I don't have to go to it, he has to do it.
Two nice things happened this afternoon.
Though the gearbox in my ute stuffed up again...
Oh well, can't win them all, at least two things worked out.
Going to celebrate with a coopers pale ale or two, stuff all those cheap and nasty euro lagers, and forget all the other crap I have to deal with.

[monkey spanners]

Have been working on an ancient Prestcold (pressed steel) unit, must be 50+ years old, original relay and capacitors! finally died after sounding very knocky for the last five years. Capacitors smell slightly of oranges so no doubt i'm covered in pcb's now

Will try and get a vid of it running before i change it.

Jon

[mikeref]

Hey Jon, while doing the vid, maybe take a moment to look into the camera so we can put a face to the name.If you are camera shy, then wear a balaclava (think thats how it's spelt)... Mike.

[monkey spanners]

Hey Jon, while doing the vid, maybe take a moment to look into the camera so we can put a face to the name.If you are camera shy, then wear a balaclava (think thats how it's spelt)... Mike.

Too Late! i've already changed it! No doubt with my dyslexia combined with camera shyness i'd end up wearing a baklava which is a type of cake

Quick look round the unit,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwYDj55iwoU

Quick run of it before the overloads tripped,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOt8g...eature=related

And the 'new' unit running,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNzkQO8PfWM&NR=1

Jon

[paul_h]

What is it about growing chillies at the moment?

I bought some cheap seeds a few months ago from Lidl to make wine from. It now seems everyone is growing them.
I have a kitchen window sill full of jalapeños all destined to drown in an alcoholic haze

Eggs

ps, yes the bog paper is in the fridge

You i) want seeds, ii) really want to see people eat hot hot hot chillies?
Look up the hippy seed company for seeds and look up their youtube channel to witness someone eating a whole chilli and suffering the effects.

Update on mine, bought some white oil and treated them for aphids. Bad news, not much happening on the flowering and fruiting front. Got a few, but not growing much, only one thats powering along is the czech black, and hybrid birdseye. And the warm weather is over too, rain and storms expected now. Going to get some lazerlight/perspex roof sheeting to make a lean to 'glass house' against the tin shed wall once I got rid of all the useless vines covering it