Last of the Staff, Home Cooling
It's the last week for the staff to be in the office. I scheduled this week off work well before we chose to shutdown the company if only because I noticed several co-principals scheduling vacation and I had not had one yet this year. We have our final party on Friday at the home of our office manager, something of a farewell. A not-all-that-fun event that we'll somehow get through. No doubt tears will be shed. The pending shutdown became more apparent last Friday when we took the photos of us for the announcement follow-up card showing what we might be doing this summer after the company closes while all the other firms and contractors are still working.
Oddly, we just updated fees for a multiple tenant contract for MEP services at the first floor in a condo building we designed and was recently occupied. Not sure if we'll actually be hired to do the work. In the next week or so we'll end up starting fundamental commissioning on a building we designed having variable refrigerant flow systems for HVAC. Wonder if the electrical side will remember to do their part in time for the final report without me reminding them.
After the shutdown announcement, it was interesting to see the reaction. Some clients pulled projects while most wanted us to keep rolling with the existing projects through completion. A couple even wanted us to start new work that could be completed by the time we truly closed up.
We principals will continue working at full salary through the end of July which coincides with the end of our extended office space lease. That means when I get back to work there will be some serious emptiness going on. Major clean-up and filing will need to occur plus there will be some design work to complete. By the last week of July we'll have cleaned out everything and moved our PCs home. I get the one I now using and maybe snag one more to use as a home server possibly to also use as a HDTV box. I means I'll finally get rid of the box I built in Fall 2001; the only one I ever built and it started correctly on the first try.
Ordered books on AutoCAD 2010 and Revit MEP Suite to further my knowledge about the software I'll soon have at home and have time to spend with it. I'm confident about ACAD 2010 but I need to try out those things on the BIM side that never happened in the last two years we had the software at the office.
How Hard Is It To Fix A Condensing Unit?
A side topic here about home life. My condo HOA chose to replace several original condensing units in February because 1) they 29 years old, 2) we could still get R22 units since they were manufactured before January 1, 2010, which eliminated the need to replace piping if they wanted to use R410a, and 3) we'd get 13 SEER units when the old ones were probably 6-8 SEER albeit they didn't really have a SEER rating back when they were made in 1981. Nonetheless, I finally activated my cooling system on the Friday before Memorial Day. No cooling. A message off to the HOA rep got me an out-of-office reply (not unexpected). Service tech showed up on the following Wednesday. Turned out the compressor was "bad". Well, that's good. Means it came from the factory that way. So much for quality control.
A message to the HOA rep on last Friday afternoon mentioned nothing had yet been done to fix the problem. Another Sunday evening reinforced a need for resolution, that I'd have to consider moving to a hotel until it was fixed and why couldn't the service company give me a courtesy call about progress on the repair. Also mentioned that being in the design side of the business I'd be willing to make phone calls to distributors to find the compressor. Monday a different service tech showed up to remove the compressor. Tuesday the original service tech was back to install the replacement compressor. Easy and simple, right?
Not a chance. The compressor was a different manufacturer which shouldn't be much of an issue except the electrical plug-in connector was a different style and there was no adapter interface to make it easy. Tech guy called into the factory for help and hoped they had a pigtail option or something that could be overnighted for installation. (If they can't get the power connection process right, what hope is there for overnighting an adapter/pigtail accessory fix?)
Must remember never to specify a Goodman residential condensing unit.
Today will be 87 deg. Tomorrow 94 deg. Not hot by Sunbelt standards by it is by some Colorado experience. If it's not fixed tomorrow, I'll have gone through four +90 deg days without home cooling. Indoor temp on such days without cooling ramps up to 87 deg by about 5-6pm. I've been through much hotter days without cooling in years past in different cities. It's just that I'm being denied use of a feature of my home that I should be capable of using without a hitch. Guess I shouldn't complain much since this is the first real repair done on the system. The downside is that my old condensing unit worked - no hiccups, no glitches, no failure. It was simply inefficient to being with and more so after twenty-plus years of occasional hail storms beating down on the condenser coil fins.
At least it's less of a headache than working myself out of a job by the end of September.
Oddly, we just updated fees for a multiple tenant contract for MEP services at the first floor in a condo building we designed and was recently occupied. Not sure if we'll actually be hired to do the work. In the next week or so we'll end up starting fundamental commissioning on a building we designed having variable refrigerant flow systems for HVAC. Wonder if the electrical side will remember to do their part in time for the final report without me reminding them.
After the shutdown announcement, it was interesting to see the reaction. Some clients pulled projects while most wanted us to keep rolling with the existing projects through completion. A couple even wanted us to start new work that could be completed by the time we truly closed up.
We principals will continue working at full salary through the end of July which coincides with the end of our extended office space lease. That means when I get back to work there will be some serious emptiness going on. Major clean-up and filing will need to occur plus there will be some design work to complete. By the last week of July we'll have cleaned out everything and moved our PCs home. I get the one I now using and maybe snag one more to use as a home server possibly to also use as a HDTV box. I means I'll finally get rid of the box I built in Fall 2001; the only one I ever built and it started correctly on the first try.
Ordered books on AutoCAD 2010 and Revit MEP Suite to further my knowledge about the software I'll soon have at home and have time to spend with it. I'm confident about ACAD 2010 but I need to try out those things on the BIM side that never happened in the last two years we had the software at the office.
How Hard Is It To Fix A Condensing Unit?
A side topic here about home life. My condo HOA chose to replace several original condensing units in February because 1) they 29 years old, 2) we could still get R22 units since they were manufactured before January 1, 2010, which eliminated the need to replace piping if they wanted to use R410a, and 3) we'd get 13 SEER units when the old ones were probably 6-8 SEER albeit they didn't really have a SEER rating back when they were made in 1981. Nonetheless, I finally activated my cooling system on the Friday before Memorial Day. No cooling. A message off to the HOA rep got me an out-of-office reply (not unexpected). Service tech showed up on the following Wednesday. Turned out the compressor was "bad". Well, that's good. Means it came from the factory that way. So much for quality control.
A message to the HOA rep on last Friday afternoon mentioned nothing had yet been done to fix the problem. Another Sunday evening reinforced a need for resolution, that I'd have to consider moving to a hotel until it was fixed and why couldn't the service company give me a courtesy call about progress on the repair. Also mentioned that being in the design side of the business I'd be willing to make phone calls to distributors to find the compressor. Monday a different service tech showed up to remove the compressor. Tuesday the original service tech was back to install the replacement compressor. Easy and simple, right?
Not a chance. The compressor was a different manufacturer which shouldn't be much of an issue except the electrical plug-in connector was a different style and there was no adapter interface to make it easy. Tech guy called into the factory for help and hoped they had a pigtail option or something that could be overnighted for installation. (If they can't get the power connection process right, what hope is there for overnighting an adapter/pigtail accessory fix?)
Must remember never to specify a Goodman residential condensing unit.
Today will be 87 deg. Tomorrow 94 deg. Not hot by Sunbelt standards by it is by some Colorado experience. If it's not fixed tomorrow, I'll have gone through four +90 deg days without home cooling. Indoor temp on such days without cooling ramps up to 87 deg by about 5-6pm. I've been through much hotter days without cooling in years past in different cities. It's just that I'm being denied use of a feature of my home that I should be capable of using without a hitch. Guess I shouldn't complain much since this is the first real repair done on the system. The downside is that my old condensing unit worked - no hiccups, no glitches, no failure. It was simply inefficient to being with and more so after twenty-plus years of occasional hail storms beating down on the condenser coil fins.
At least it's less of a headache than working myself out of a job by the end of September.
posted by Sketcher | 9:32 AM
2 Comments:
So sad experienced, whats the reason behind the closure? That's the hardest thing to accept in having a job but the company will soon announced for closure. But still life is a wonderful journey, their are still lots of work available, only you would find out.
split system
Though, when temps reach into the 90s and the humidity is so high you can squeeze droplets out of the air, I do close up my (much newer) house and run the central air. I also think that rmr 86 ingredients would be much of help.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home