Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Technology

The authors have carefully aligned the text to the National Skills Standards for HVAC/R technicians, creating an excellent resource to prepare students for certifications and exams, including ICE, NATE, HVAC Excellence, RSES, HARDI and United Association (UA) STAR.

Safety topics include safe workplace surroundings, working in confined spaces, personal protection equipment (PPE), first aid, ladder safety, fire extinguisher usage and heat-related injuries.

Reflecting their importance to the industry, the text includes expanded content on topics including specific volume, specific gravity and density, R-value, U-value and calculations, systems with combinations of metering devices and indoor fan motor control.

The text includes information on capacitor testing, fan-cycling devices, scroll compressor efficiency and piston metering devices, combustion and high-efficiency furnaces and combustion air, Temperature Difference (TD) and compressor testing and chilled beam technology.

Find all the information students need to prepare for technician certification, along with an introduction to all the key organizations that support both voluntary and mandatory technician certification for the industry. A special section is dedicated to career opportunities available in today’s HVACR field.

Coverage of key green organizations and their goals familiarizes students with current and emerging plans to establish green buildings and green mechanical rooms throughout the country.

A special section dedicated to professional preparation includes a comprehensive list of career opportunities available in today’s HVACR field.

A unique technician Service Call feature showcases real-world scenarios to help students develop a service mode of thinking and encourage them to apply what they’ve learned in practical ways.

Updated leak repair requirements and EPA regulations, as well as information on system evacuation without the use of a gauge manifold.

At the request of many instructors, the end-of-unit summaries have been removed from the text. Many instructors felt that students were relying on the summaries instead of reading the actual units. In addition, instructors felt that the summaries, in many instances, provided the answers to the end-of-unit questions.

Completely re-aligned content (all units) where unit objectives clearly align to the major unit topics as well as to the review questions at the end of each unit. This alignment is provided to instructors in the for of a Content Verification Grid (CVG), which is provided as part of the instructor resource material.

Unit summaries can be found in the instructor resource center. This arrangement allows instructors to control access to the summaries, so students can use them as a study aid, when appropriate, rather than a primary source of information and substitute for chapter reading.

The text includes expanded content on workplace surroundings and personal protection equipment (PPE), including new material on first aid, heat-related injuries, and confined spaces, as well as expanded coverage of ladder safety and fire extinguisher usage.

Technical coverage has been updated to include leak repair requirements and EPA regulations for AIM Act alignment, low GWP, A2L information, ASHRAE-classified A3 refrigerant information, system evacuation without the use of a gauge manifold, general refrigeration retrofitting considerations and guidelines, combustion air, compressor testing and Chilled beam technology.

System references include new-generation refrigerants such as HFC replacements. New refrigerants are referenced in new figures and diagrams. Expanded refrigerant content includes information on the refrigerant numbering system, azeotropic and near azeotropic blends and general refrigeration retrofitting considerations and guidelines.

The text includes new commercial ice machine content that reflects some of the many technological changes that have taken place in the commercial ice-making sector.