Old HVAC industry practices are holding us back and costing us money. But we can fix it.

More Pumping More Now
Links 'n' stuff:

How heat pumps actually work:

The video I did on home electrification:

Technology Connections on Mastodon:

Technology Connections on Bluesky:

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00:00 Intro
02:19 This video is about sizing equipment
04:03 My home and its oversized system
08:49 So many homes have the same problem
10:41 Oversizing needs to stop
13:31 Price gouging
15:56 A note on duct sizing
18:12 How a smart thermostat can do all the work for you
23:00 LOAD CALCULATIONS
29:34 An experiment to validate those calculations
40:06 RESULTS
42:12 The impact for me
43:17 A rant on ductwork design
48:57 Why the heck is my furnace so big?
50:00 My parents (wrongly!) got told they'd need a giant heat pump
55:08 Debrief
1:01:11 Bloops

[TechnologyConnections]

Are you looking for a less cantankerous, more shareable version of this video? The condensed version on Connextras has got you covered!

[henningerhenningstone]

How fitting that Alec is just about the only YouTuber who puts the long version on the _main_ channel, rather than saying "here's a bite-size video - for the full-length, go to the second channel"

[TheAnnyParker]

I like to imagine Alec is talking to an HVAC rep who's sitting tied up across from him. It makes the video so much funnier

[porpoise]

One of my favourite things about heat pumps:

My parents regularly used the old cliche line of parents telling their kids to close the doors / windows, "we aren't air conditioning outside".

And now they aircondition the outside for half the year.

[frankis]

You absolutely hit the nail on the head with your criticism of the separation of sales and technicians. While a tradesperson’s primary job is installation and maintenance, not “closing deals” their technical knowledge is utterly necessary to ensure each customer gets what they need. If you ever, EVER want to know what you need, talk to someone who does the actual work and is clearly passionate about what they do.

[WanJae]

I won't bore everyone with the saga, but trying to find an actual pro HVAC installer in a major market that understood this stuff and was willing to work with me took over a year and too much of my life energy.

[Deucehoru]

As someone in the HVAC Trade, this video is extremely valuable to homeowners and you are empowering my own standards. Not only that, you are calling out the predatorial practices of HVAC Companies. Heat pumps are amazing tech, and I would cite this source 7 days of the week. Fantastic breakdown, thank you!

[Goabnb]

Is this the ultimate Technology Connections video? Combining space heaters, with extension leads, with incandescent Christmas lights, with heatpumps and the latent heat of vaporization? Like a call back to every previous video.

[therustedmonkie]

6:27 - My man corrected himself. Good job bro

[Maplenr]

HVAC guy here. A lot of the issues I've seen have been lack of adequate training. I've literally googled my way to competency, and that is completely unacceptable. But, they don't care as long as we figure it out eventually because the customer is footing the bill anyways. It's horrifying

[bobfuscator]

"Maybe you think that's strange, but I think I'm strange too." ...This encapsulates part of the reason I like this channel.

[woodruffjb]

As a 45 year veteran HVAC company owner, you made a GREAT episode! Also, the pith was outstanding!

[Sean-moun]

The clear problem with the smart Google thermostats is that they are made by Google. You're a smart guy. Get an old laptop running Home Assistant and go open source with your home automation. You'll pay once, you'll pay less, and you'll own your data. Join us. Go down the Linux rabbit hole.

[TheBloodyViki]

I love this dude, he's one of those youtubers where after you watch one video you're hooked.
Also thanks to him my dishes are cleaner than ever.

[Rintarok]

Am HVAC design engineer (floor plan layouts not the actual units), one of the reasons why gas furnaces are always oversized is because that 60k BTU is the smallest many manufacturers make, and they end up being the most common/cheapest because they're used on everything 5 tons and under. To get a smaller heater, you basically have to go electric or heat pump

[Livlifetaistdeth]

I haven't bought a dishwasher pod in over a year. I couldn't be happier about knowing how dishwasher detergent works. So i will be watching this entire show from beginning to end.

[iitzfizz]

To watch the shortened version would feel wrong on so many levels, I love the in depth analysis you provide. Never change Alex, never change.

[effwrench]

I am a HVACR professional and I now train others in the HVAC industry. This is solid gold. I strive to instill in my trade that we have been constantly oversizing equipment for as long as the trade has been around.
I converted to what is called a dual fuel setup about 10 years ago that is a heat pump with gas backup heat (lots of boring details as to why I went with that setup)
When I bought my house it had a 120, 000 btuh furnace installed. I now heat the house with a 3 ton heat pump which matches the cooling load on the home it is matched with the smallest furnace I could get that can provide airflow for the HP and has the capability to operate at 40% of its rated capacity. I live in a cold weather climate and with some minor help from the furnace on that colder than cold day once In a while it keeps my home very comfortable.
Using similar thermostat technology I can track my power and gas usage and typically my furnace runs less than
15 minutes per day most days. And that runtime is almost all when the heat pump is defrosting.
My area has incentives from various agencies and organizations will completely if not more hand cover the equipment cost to the contractor for the cost differences in the equipment from AC to HP units. Installation cost differences given modern thermostats is almost $0
A lot of what someone people will call out as flaws in his analysis are not reading between the lines in his data and methodology. You simply cannot give a masterclass on absolutely everything that goes into this stuff in one hour! Some details are left out.
Great video
Anyone who says otherwise is definitely selling something

[ToxenL]

Former HVAC sales rep here. Great video! While attending a hvac training, I was giving a rather shocking Stat, less than 10% of hvac sales in 2022 had a load calculation preformed prior to the sale of a new system.

I'm not innocent either, as I was never told what or how to preform one of these and became part of the problem. The more I learned in that role the more shocked I was at how much damage and headache I likely caused for homeowners.

Your comments on the lack of communication between departments is actually rather accurate and something that has, as of late become a much bigger focus for the company. (who I still work for under a different position, in another trade department) so atleast at our national company things are changing and loadcalcs are becoming a much larger focus company wide. The issues of system sizing has been a regular cause of issues, callbacks, and heachaces for us and the customer.

[tedkrapf]

Software engineer here. If someone specs the Manual J Calculation thing, I'm sure I could code it. Thanks for another great and interesting video, Alec!