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Systems Help Center

Our comprehensive HVAC Systems Help Center covers a wide range of HVAC-related topics, including air conditioning and heat pumps, geothermal, hot-water heating, thermostats and controls, solar, steam heating, and warm air. We also have a section of informative and entertaining articles to help you sharpen your HVAC business skills. And our Heating Museum is a captivating journey through the evolution of HVAC technologies. 

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Recent Articles

colorful radiators
Metal Paints and Radiators

Ever wonder why the Dead Men painted so many of those old, free-standing, steam- and hot-water radiators silver? Yeah, so did I. I did some digging and came up with a del...

Published on 11/24/2018 1:51 PM by Dan Holohan
Posted in Steam Heating and Hot-Water Heating
How to Feed a Low-Pressure Steam Boiler

I once worked for the rep that sold McDonnell & Miller products in New York. They handed me a catalog on a Friday and told me that we would be the new rep the following M...

Published on 10/24/2018 11:12 AM
Posted in Steam Heating
old truck
Why This Truck?

Some years ago, my buddy Dennis Bellanti, of Ferguson fame, picked me up at the Denver airport in a truck I came to call Bruno. I followed Dennis across the acres of park...

Published on 10/17/2018 9:21 AM by Dan Holohan
Posted in The HVAC Business
scary furnace1
Fear of the Unknown

A homeowner, let’s call her Linda, sent me a message through Heating Help’s contact form last winter and it still has me thinking. She said, “I filled my glass gauge too ...

Published on 10/10/2018 12:58 PM by Erin Holohan Haskell
Posted in The HVAC Business
men women
Essential Differences

Last February, The Lovely Marianne and I spent three days driving from The Isle of Long to Naples, Florida, where our friends, Bob and Loreen, were expecting us. I knew t...

Published on 09/18/2018 10:05 AM by Dan Holohan
Posted in The HVAC Business
Avoiding Scale in Heating Systems

Having scale on heating surfaces is like having all the traffic lights in your town turn red at the same time, and stay red. Most movement stops. In the case of a boiler,...

Published on 09/17/2018 11:03 AM
Posted in Steam Heating
taking order
Excellent Choice!

The Lovely Marianne and I were out to dinner with our daughter, Erin, who bought our business when we retired a few years ago. We were in a nice Italian restaurant and th...

Published on 08/26/2018 4:28 PM by Dan Holohan
Posted in The HVAC Business
hvac hero 5
How to Save a Boiler's Life

It's a given these days that all boilers have low-water cutoffs and that makes me very happy because I've seen hot-water boilers explode. One involved a sand hole in a ca...

Published on 08/09/2018 7:25 PM by Dan Holohan
Posted in Steam Heating