The system has performed satisfactorily in the past, however, since their holiday shutdown the room won't go above 75-degrees F. We still have 90-psig-steam pressure at the boiler, and the gauge downstream of the solenoid reads the same. I don't think that the coils are waterlogged because it doesn't take long to get steam from the manual drain valve on the trap.

What's going on?

You and Me in the Basement!

That's one of the letters that I'm using in this special full-day seminar that I've got coming up on October 10. It's in College Park, Maryland, and my friends at ACCA-NCC are sponsoring it.

This isn't a new seminar; I did it a few years ago to huge crowds all over the country. The letters I'm using this time are new, though. Real people. Tough problems. Can you figure that one out? If you can, people will pay for that knowledge.

And it's a fun concept, this seminar. We put a lot of heating professionals into a big room and then I pose real-world questions, like the one above. These questions range from hot water to steam, and they cover both residential and commercial applications - the stuff pros get involved with every day.

I read a letter that lays out the problem and then everyone gets involved. We're in the basement with the lost soul who's having the problem. What do we do first? Then what? What can be causing this problem? What questions do we need to ask? What process do we follow? What should we do? The customer is waiting upstairs!

What I enjoy most about this seminar is when two or three (or ten!) people all shout out their opinions at the same time - and none of them agree. Then they try to convince each other. It gets pretty feisty! And I get to moderate, and to lead everyone to the a solution that's practical, which always involves looking at the science, the basics, what we know, and especially, the art of troubleshooting.