hvac history

In this episode, Dan Holohan shares the tale of how nominal pipe sizes came to be, as well as some comical work stories.

In this episode, Dan Holohan reflects on a time when apps were cardboard and contractors were delighted by them.

In this episode, Dan Holohan shares the story of how the air vent made quite an impression on those who were able to afford this relatively new thing called steam heat in 1924.

From 1879 to 1891 there were 2,159 reported steam boiler explosions in the US. In this episode, Dan Holohan shares the story behind a piping configuration that saved boilers and lives.

The Dead Men had a clever solution for balancing gravity hot-water heating systems. They told each other about it, but they never wrote it down so that you and I, stuck in the 21st Century would know. In this episode, Dan Holohan shares this secret that was almost lost to history.

From the paint-the-floor method to the American Radiator Company's Institute of Thermal Research, Dan Holohan explores how the Dead Men developed radiator ratings.

It’s amazing what old heating systems can tell us if we pay attention to the details left by the Dead Men who installed them.

The Irish made fires that never went out. The fire in the hearth was for cooking and for warmth, and it smoldered for hundreds of years in some cases. In this episode, Dan Holohan reflects on his heating heritage.

The automatic air vent didn’t come easily to the heating industry. It took hard work and a lot of very inventive thinking. Hearing this story will help you sharpen your troubleshooting skills.

In this episode, Dan Holohan time travels back to 1905 when Washington, D. C. was pondering the promise of a soon-to-be-installed district heating system.

In this episode, Dan Holohan tells us about the inventive tees used in early hot-water heating systems.

Ignoring preventative maintenance can have disastrous consequences. Take this story, for instance.

In this episode, Dan Holohan explains why this “history nonsense” gives us the insight we need to keep things in perspective and solve the toughest heating problems.

Some people just stay with you long after they are gone. In this episode, Dan Holohan remembers his friend Fremont Lobbestael and his lessons on steam heating and life.

In this episode, Dan Holohan reviews a circa-1920s short film that the US Bureau of Mines made about energy conservation.

In this episode, Dan Holohan reflects on how his dad grew up, seeing his breath indoors on winter mornings. It’s only within a couple of generations that we’ve come to expect homes to be heated or cooled. Our work whispers; it doesn’t shout. We've gone far beyond protecting the health of the nation. We now also provide the nation with comfort, and when we do our jobs well, people don’t even know we were there.

In this episode, Dan Holohan faces a startling surprise when troubleshooting a problem involving a Mills steam-heating system and a football-sized air vent.

In this episode, Dan Holohan shares how district heating was born, why it’s getting bigger all over the world, and what this means for hydronics.

William Newton Best developed the earliest oil burner just as the world entered the 20th Century. Coal was king, but he didn’t let that stand in his way. In this episode, Dan Holohan shares how oil burners disrupted the coal industry.

There’s a scene in The Graduate where Mr. McGuire says to Benjamin, “I want to say one word to you...Plastics!...There’s a great future in plastics.” This was around the time that Thomas Engel invented PEX. In this episode, Dan Holohan shares how plastics entered the HVAC industry and how not everyone was as enthusiastic about it as Mr. McGuire.