My first couple of weeks in Calgary.

Ok, so let's talk about my first couple of weeks.

     I was very fortunate to be able to stay at Jenny's ex-brother-in-laws when I got to Calgary. Nigel has lived in Calgary for quite a long time and I am sharing his house with his son Christopher. They are both pretty busy guys and I have been doing some extra work for Nigel on his house while I am here. The location is fabulous and it is not a bad commute to get to work in the morning, although the drive home can be a bit more of an adventure.

      This is a picture of the Calgary skyline I took from a rooftop north of downtown. This is actually just about a dozen blocks away from where I'm living. I get to see a lot of the city from the rooftops because that is where I am usually working. The weather has been quite nice and almost too hot. Often it will be hot all day, and then the clouds and thunderstorms move in for the evening. They tell me this is not normal weather, but it is all I have seen since I have been here.

    To the right is a picture of my first hail storm. It was already starting to settle down by this point, but it was coming down so hard that I couldn't talk to Jenny on my phone from the noise of the hail hitting my truck. One thing I will say about older vehicles - I have been in 3 hail storms since I have been here and my '86 Ford 3/4 ton is no worse the wear while newer vehicles are getting covered with dents. They just don't build them like they used to!

     Anyway, moving on to work. I have done a variety of things since I have been here, but I was a little worried in my first week. I got to the office on Monday and had a quick meeting with Keith the owner discussing the five year plan that his employees go through on their way to being Journeymen. It was a quick meeting because we were interrupted by one of the dispatchers who was in need of another hand. Thus I was handed my first assignment - cleaning condenser coils. So after 9 months of school and endless hours of homework to learn all they could throw at me I was sent to blow the dirt out of numerous coils so that people would have proper air conditioning.

      As you can see from the picture we would drive to the site in a pickup towing a large compressor. We then roped the air hose up to the roof in the general vicinity of the condenser and/or rooftop units and blew out the dust and dirt with a large volume of compressed air. To be completely fair, this is actually a very important part of maintaining A/C units because as the coils become dirty they loose their efficiency and eventually cause the unit to shut-off. However, it is not the most exciting of jobs.

     I realized that I had to pay my dues as a new employee, so I happily went about doing my job but I quietly hoped that I wouldn't be doing this all summer. My prayers were answered on my first Friday when I was sent out with a 2nd year apprentice to answer some service calls and actually got to do some troubleshooting.

     Our first stop was at a City of Calgary 911 relay station (with a really big antenna) where they had a problem with the A/C not working in the equipment room. These are pretty important A/C units as they keep the electronic communication equipment from overheating and messing up the 911 response system. After finding that the A/C was working properly on site we determined that they problem was in the automation system. After calling a supervisor and getting him to flip the correct switch on the control board the A/C came on just like it was supposed to and everything was fine.

     We then drove out to High River and repaired a short in the low voltage side of a rooftop unit at a banking centre. It took a while to chase down the problem but we finally found where the wiring for a limit switch had rubbed against the sharp edge of a transformer and shorted out, blowing the fuse on the control board. We repaired the wire and strapped it out of the way so it wouldn't happen again and went on our way.

      My next week was spent doing a maintenance contract a neat place in Calgary called Heritage Park. Their motto is "How the west was once." It is kind of a theme park with old buildings and employees in costume so it is a kind of living museum that operates during the summer. To maintain their image we were not allowed to drive our van down into the old part of the park so we had to carry all of our stuff in by foot.

    
     There are a fair number of natural gas furnaces and A/C units to service so it took us a good seven days to get everything done. In the old part of the park we had to change filters and blower drive belts as well as effect some repairs for some units that weren't working at all.

     

     We also conducted some maintenance on three large engineered air units on the newer part of the park. These rooftop units were large enough that we had to go inside them to change the filters and belts

     They run on multiple stages so as the demand for cooling increases the compressors are started in steps one at a time until it is running at full speed with all four compressors.

     The wiring is very neat an tidy so it is easier to follow the sequence of operation and make sure that everything is working the way it is supposed to. They also used Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) to control the speed of the supply and return air fans. Really cool stuff (forgive the pun).









   
 Anyway, that's probably more than you wanted to hear right now, but it hopefully gives you an idea of what my first couple of weeks were like. I leave you with one more picture. I took this on the roof of a warehouse and I like to call it "On The Beach in Calgary".

      I hope that everything is well in your lives and I will get some more pics and info to you soon.
Miss you all,
Rob

Welcome back

Well, how `bout that. Its been a while since I`ve been here. A lot has happened since my last entry, but rather than bore you with everything that`s happened all at once, I will try to break it up a little.

Lets start with the rest of my training. I had a very busy year and did a lot of work on my courses to get myself as well educated as I could. Over all it was a great year. I learned more than I will ever be able to relate to you here, and I finished the year at the top of my class. I also got some great experience working with both Glacier Industries in Parksville, and a week at the Harmac Pulp mill in Cedar. I will try to elaborate on that in a later entry.

After graduation I spent a couple of months working odd jobs and trying to line up an apprenticeship with a local company so that I could put all that great expanse of knowledge that had filled my head to good use. Unfortunately, the job market in Parksville Qualicum was a little too lean and I really needed to get to work so I broadened my search parameters to out of town and out of province.

The first morning I sent resumes to out of province possibilities, I got a call from a firm in Calgary. Yes, Calgary, Alberta. The company name is A K Brown and they had previously hired graduates from the same program as me, and were very pleased with the training that we had received at VIU. I spoke with Keith, the owner of the firm, for about a half hour and was very pleased with what he had to say. He seemed to like what I had to say as well because he offered me a job over the phone. After some conversations at home and calling him back the next day to get some more details about the position, I decided to go for it.

Wow. A whole month.

Hello all,
I just realized how long it has been since my last entry. I guess it runs in the family. It has been a busy month.

Classes have been pretty regular. We are still working on the four core fundamental subjects that will help make the rest of the classes make sense. The four basics are Safety, Tools and Machinery, Electrical Fundamentals, and Refrigeration Fundamentals.We work on these subjects until Christmas break then we work on a variety of other subjects until the end of the year in May.

So far I have been able to keep up with all the theory and I think I have a pretty good understanding of the everything we've covered. On my work experience days (Fridays) the guys I've been working with have been quizzing me on things as we work on the different systems, and I'm getting probably 60% of the answers. That's not bad considering I've only been working on this stuff since early September. I have to say that work experience has been a real eye opener. So far I have been out 4 days and worked on seven very different systems. It shows me how this industry covers such a broad range of products and technologies and how every day working could be a different adventure. I'm really looking forward to it.

Last week we had our mid-terms which kept me very busy for two weeks and a full weekend. I really wanted to do well on these both as a confidence booster and to help keep my grade average up. I figure it is easier to stay near the top than to have to struggle back to get a good grade on my finals. Anyway, things went quite well - I had a 97% average over the 4 tests. The one I wasn't very happy with was the tools and machinery mid-term. I got a few questions wrong that I just didn't read carefully enough. That gives me something to work on for the finals in December. The other piece of good news we got during mid-terms is that if we have an 80% or higher average at the end of the year, we don't have to write the three big finals in May. That is definitely something to work towards.

We just completed an assignment called the "Horn Project". The idea is to practice bending, flaring, and brazing(soldering) copper tubing. These are all things that we will have to do in the field when we are installing and repairing systems. It was a little tricky but my bending and flaring went well and held a 150 psig of nitrogen which was the main test of the work we did. Then we had to cut all the flared ends off and braze and solder all the pipes back together. We didn't have time to pressure test the pieces last night, so I'll have to wait until Monday to see how well I did. I think it will hold pressure just fine although some of the brazed joints are a little ugly. It will get better with practice.

Well, I need to get going. I have a few things to do before class tonight. I will try to get my next post up a little quicker as we are getting back into a regular schedule again.

Talk to you soon,
Rob

Work Experience = Cool

So I just finished my first day of work experience. I was fortunate to be able to hook up with a local company called Glacier Industries. There is the owner, a receptionist and 3 journeymen working pretty much full time. They do residential and commercial installations and service work.

My first day out I went with Jason who actually took the HVAC/R course in 2006-07. He just finished writing his red seal certification in January. He was very informative and made me do most of the physical work which was good experience and showed me what I need to practice next week in my tools class. I was able to do the brazing (high temp soldering) but I'm overheating the copper pipe, so I'll work on that.

We did a repair job in Nanoose which was basically switching out a defective component on an infloor heating system. Even though it was just replacing a part, Jason is very thorough and had to figure out the whole system before we could be sure of what needed to be replaced. Now I know why we are spending so much time in class learning how to properly read wiring diagrams.

Then we went to Qualicum bay and install a new condensor on a walk-in cooler. It was very educational because we had to completely evacuate the refrigerant  to be able to plumb in the new condensor so we went through the whole process of emptying and refilling the system which isn't as easy as it sounds.

Once everything was set up we actually had to wait for some time for the system to cool down again and stabilize to make sure it was working properly. It is quite interesting watching the gages and  instruments as everything works towards a balance again. I'm really looking forward to my next Friday ride along.

That's about it for now. I will keep you up to date as things progress.

Talk to you soon,
Rob

And thus it begins.

Well, I figured I was overdue for another update so here it is. Things have been going very well. So far we haven't hit any concepts that I couldn't understand, so I am feeling pretty good about everything. I had a private meeting with my teacher this week and she told me she didn't have any concerns about my work either. I'd tell you more about the meeting but then it wouldn't be private any more.

A little background on my class. I was hoping that maybe there would be some older guys in the class (by older I mean close to my age) but everyone is in their early 20's or younger except for the next oldest guy who is still 10 years younger than me. As I am writing this his wife is having their first child. She was supposed to be induced today but we are still waiting to hear about the little one actually popping out. Good luck to Patrick and his wife and their new baby. A very exciting journey is just beginning.

Anyway, getting back to the class, I took a couple of pics of the classroom and workshop. To the right is our classroom. There is 8 desks with two chairs each and a computer on each desk. These computers are linked with each other and the instructors computer, but we don't have any internet access on these machines. We have had a couple of chances to look at the refrigeration simulators and practice circuits on these units which will be very helpful for designing and trouble shooting as we learn more about how the systems work.

The next picture is of the workshop, or at least part of it. The room is at least twice this size and has a bunch of simulated A/C and refrigeration systems as well as actual heat pumps and air conditioners. We also have a hot room where we do all the soldering and brazing that goes with plumbing refrigeration systems (lots and lots of copper tubing). We each have our own toolboxes (the day class has to share theirs) and work benches. This is where the fun stuff happens. I'll post some pictures of the things we are working on when the projects are complete.

We also have a computer lab at the University Campus (these other rooms are at the Cowichan High School) that we use on Thursday nights. Those computers have full internet access so we can research different projects and concepts.

Our subjects are moving fairly quickly right now, but not so quick that it is hard to keep up. Actually a large part of what we have been doing so far is math. All the math I learned in high school and thought I would never need is haunting me again. We have to calculate the unknowns in DC circuits, and figure out the values for pressure, temperature and volume equations. Other than that, it has mostly been learning and understanding definitions relevant to the industry (types of heat, heat transfer, states of matter, specific heat, gravity and pressures - you know - refrigeration stuff).

Anyway, its getting late so I think I'll wrap it up. I still have some reading to do before tomorrows class so I had better get to it.

Talk to you again soon,
Rob

P.S. One of the first things I learned is that the word "refrigeration" doesn't have a "d" in it. I always thought it did.

HVAC: The beginning.

Well, the first two weeks are done and what can I say? How about a little background on the course?

 I decided to get into HVAC after a couple of different conversations. I was visiting my brother in Victoria one day. He is a machinist and works at the dockyards in Esquimalt. He mentioned that from time to time, they post openings for apprentices in different trades and mentioned that Refrigeration tech's earn quite a good living. We talked about it a little but I was happy at work and had lots of other things going on in my life so I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it.

Later that year I ended up getting laid off from my job and found myself looking at the possibility of changing careers. After about 6 months I talk to my career councillor about maybe retraining for something different. I mentioned that I had seen a course on HVAC on VIU's website and his eyes lit up. I got the feeling he thought that was a good trade.

I spent a couple of months researching the trade and filling out an application to be sponsored to go to school. The application went in through an agency that works with the provincial government to get people educated and employed. They are called Amber Educational Services but their contract with the government expires in March so they won't be around much longer. However, there will be some kind of agency that will apparently take over as the program is very popular and effective.

At the same time, I started getting my application in to VIU to see if there was still room in the course. I found out that the daytime class was full, but they offered an evening course as well. There was still space available in the evening course, but it was almost full as well. I did the required assesment test to prove that I was smart enough to go back to school. The test was based on math, reading comprehension and mechanical reasoning. I did a lot of practice on the math as it has been awhile since I had to think about converting fractions and percentages among other things, but it went very well and I passed.

Finally I got all my approvals (there is more involved with this, but I will save that for another time). The other thing about the course was that it is taught in Duncan. I looked at some possibilities for staying in Duncan during the week, but it is only about an hour drive so I decided to wait and see if there was someone I could commute with from Parksville or Nanaimo.

I got to Duncan for the first night and found out that our teacher is a woman. Normally that's not a big deal, but during my research on the trade I found out that there are very few women working in HVAC/refrigeration (less than 5% I think) so it was a bit of a surprise. However, our teacher has been working in the industry or teaching since the early 80's, so she is very experienced and knowledgeable about the trade.

The other thing I discovered is that due to an error at administration, we only had 8 people registered for the class and only 6 showed up. Out of those 6, two were from Duncan, two from Victoria and one from Cowichan lake. So much for commuting. Since then we have another guy join who lives in Nanaimo that I am working on setting up some kind of drive sharing but I haven't worked that out yet.

Anyway the classes are really starting to get interesting now. The first week was a little slow because we spent a lot of time just going over the rules and safety regulations. On a side note I was laughing to myself as we went through the safety regulations because I have worked quite a bit with my father-in-law over the years. He is an extremely experienced and knowledgeable contractor, and I learn things from him every time I work with him. However, safety has never been his strong suit. I think almost every item listed on the first two pages are rules that I have seen him or someone working with him violate on a consistent basis. Love you, Doug!

We have been working the last week on basic refrigeration which has meant we have started calculating the BTU's needed to melt and boil water as a basis for learning about refrigerants. We have also starting working on calculating voltage, current, resistance and power for basic circuits. In our tools class we practiced cutting, flaring and bending copper tubing, something we will be doing a lot as HVAC/R techs. I had done some plumbing before working at home and in the restoration business, but it is a lot more precise when you are plumbing for refrigerants as they are a lot more sensitive to imperfections in the copper.

As we start to go over new things in class I am getting a sense of the depth of this course and I know it will get very intense very soon.

That's about all for now, I will try and post more info soon so it is not such a long and dry read.

Talk to you soon,
Rob

If my kids can do it, why can't I?

Ok, so, last year Miranda started a blog about her adventures in her first year of college in Ontario. It was fun to see how her year was progressing and how much fun she was having with her friends and classes.

This year Jessica is in New York for her dance apprenticeship working with a very progressive and exciting young choreographer and she started a video blog for all those that take interest in her career.

I am sitting at home feeling lonely because girls have moved away, my wife is a partner in a business that is keeping her busy pretty much all the time, and I'm not seeing much of my son or our exchange student because they are going to school during the day, and I am going to school in the evenings.

I find myself waiting with great anticipation for the girls next blog to come out just so I get a different view of what is going on in their lives, so I thought maybe some of you that I have always felt great support from (especially in the last couple of difficult years) might want to know how my new life is progressing.

So here it is.

On September the 6th, I started an 8 month foundations course to become a certified HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) and Refrigeration Technician. It is a 5 year apprenticeship with this course giving me the basics to start work in the industry in May. I am really excited about it because it is an opportunity to learn a varied and constantly evolving trade that is challenging and should help me provide for my heavily artistic family (there's good money in the performing arts).

I will try to put up some regular updates as I learn interesting new things in my classes, and if you are curious, you can check it out to see what is going on.

That's it for now, I will post a new entry sometime next week. Maybe after my first couple of quizzes so I can let you know how I'm doing.

Talk to you soon,
Rob