There are many apartments and condos that have tremendous problems cooling a space. Many tenants/owners complain that during the peak cooling season they can’t cool large parts of their units. There are two major reasons this happens in so many buildings, and it’s exasperated over the life cycle of operation. Undersized initial design Unit tonnage capability that’s very marginal for … Read More
Eventually, all the coils or the entire unit will need replacing. In commercial and industrial systems, coil (component) replacement is the norm due to the tremendous expense and down time of an entire new system. The larger the system tonnage, the larger the price gap and replacement becomes a no brainer. Performance To begin with, today’s coil selections for packaged … Read More
The “holiday season” may be over, but the “coil replacement season” is in full swing in many areas of the country. Particular attention must be paid to the condition of your heating and cooling coils. Heating coils that aren’t providing the needed BTUH capacity can become a huge problem in the dead of winter, while cooling coils and condenser coils … Read More
This question is a complex question with many answers. However, all of them fit one of three categories. These categories are, 1) inadequate coil design and/or construction, 2) adverse temperature/pressure and corrosion, and 3) inadequate maintenance. All these reasons could be avoided if we lived in a ‘perfect” world. Let’s examine each category a little closer. Inadequate coil design and/or … Read More
Southwest Coil receives many systematic and application questions every month. Here are a few you might find interesting or may find to be familiar. In the middle of summer, many of these problems can really determine an HVAC systems efficiency and reliability. We service a large community hospital. Each year our cooling in certain systems seems to be reduced, and … Read More
There are many commercial and industrial applications that have different coil arrangements and construction. Two parts of these applications remain constant. 1) Older coils will have heavier construction materials, and 2) Most HVAC coils were not constructed for all types of applications. Keen competition over the years has increased the need for energy efficiency. Most HVAC unitary parts are now … Read More
The Top Ten Reasons Coil replacement has been a part of the HVAC aftermarket for as long as finned tube coils have been used to create heat transfer. The coils installed in the 50’s and 60’s were heavier duty than today’s coils and were almost always spiral fin type with a tension wound fin onto copper tubes. The plate fin … Read More
Replacing heat exchanger coils has been taking place since the beginning of the HVAC and processing and cooling era. It’s now close to 90 years since the first finned tube heat exchangers appeared on the market in the early 1900’s. The coil has undergone drastic changes over the years – from spiral wound type through the plate fin coils that … Read More
You think making coil selections are complicated now? As a young Sales Engineer in the 70’s, I used a slide rule to select coils. It took me 15 minutes to select just one chilled water coil 4 decades ago versus about a minute today. When I bought my first Texas Instrument Calculator, it assisted me in quadrupling my output. That … Read More
There are thousands of different types of systems and applications for heat transfer coils. They range from simple commercial HVAC installations through highly corrosive industrial process applications. Over the years, we’ve noticed a high volume of misapplication of coils that reduces their life expectancy. Test your coil material selection knowledge by answering the questions below: 1. What system characteristic would … Read More
