Heat Pumps: Operation, Installation, Service

I was required to buy this for my class to pass an HVAC Excellence work ready certification exam on heat pumps. ESCO, who publishes this, operates HVAC Excellence as well. My school has been doing these exams for about a year and only one guy passed it so far--having returned from the trade to do so. Eight of us recently took it, and I was the only one to pass. The biggest difference is I overprepared and read other material, while my classmates not knowing what they were getting into concentrated just on this book to get everything out of heat pumps.Even looking at this for someone not taking an exam, the majority of the time, the book reads straight to the point. The problem is some of the chapters are so short and direct that you end up with more questions than answers. The chapters on "Balance Point" and "CFM" are so dry and technical sounding, I had to re-read them multiple times over, to the point where I sought out external material that fleshed it out better. I feel you remember something easier if you understand it, rather than straight memorizing it at face value. The opening chapter covers a share of science and gradually works itself into pressure/temperature relationships. Chapter 12 on troubleshooting was also pretty handy for a common sense way of approaching a system. Though other areas feel rushed, with spelling and grammar errors. Along with a few practice questions where you couldn't find the answer in the material. The chapter on piping had a chart where they didn't give you enough information to answer. The area on installation contradicted itself with space requirements around your inside and outside units to where it became a running joke in the class that you won't know what to answer on the exam. After that, I started to question where they got some of their numbers from.If you already know about heat pump systems, or have worked on them in the trade, then this might be an easy refresher to fill in a few gaps you may have missed on areas such as theory, efficiency or operation. But if you're expecting this to be the go-to manual on them--or lay it all out for you when taking the HVAC Excellence certification exam--then it will leave a share to be desired. Out of about 120 pages, there's only about half of that of actual reading material. The rest is comprised of some practice questions and lab manuals to do if you have equipment at your disposal. I recommend to invest some more and pick up "Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technology" or another book on the subject instead. Even the sample questions on Tests.com (who partners with HVAC Excellence) were more useful, though expensive at $40 for about 25 questions that were actually on the test.Compared to this book, I got more out of Unit 43 on air to air heat pumps in "Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technology" 7th edition (along with some of the other chapters on operation and components) than this. It's a much, much larger book, which can seem intimidating, but it typically starts from the ground up. NCCER's heat pump chapters in the HVAC second and third editions also had more fleshed out chapters than this. There was a good chunk not even covered or helped you prepare for on the exam--like on reading a schematic, characteristics of scroll compressors, or what a charge compensator is--along with some sections they grazed over somewhat like geothermal or dual fuel systems.

new!!! good book

This book is a few years old so it does not cover mini splits with inverter drives. It also has some facts on mini split temp ranges and efficiencies that are out of date. With that said I thought it was well worth the money. For me it got to technical at times. If your goal is to work in the industry I think you would want this level of information. I do not intend to be a tech. The book starts out with the basics and the second half has more technical info so you really just skim the parts you don't need. If they update it I would give it a 5 star rating

School

I found it to be a good primer for someone doing maintenance who does not necessarily need to know all the theory involved in how the system works. I also found it to be less intimidating than the thick textbooks.

Great book. Worth every penny I paid for. There a lot of information about wiring, schemes, great explanation, colored pictures. Everything structured and easy to understand. Like it.

The Heatpump book is Very informative. It was for my boyfriend, as fsr as I can see hes very satisfied. He would have said something if he wasn't

Well summarised ,easy to understand. Good book

This is simply a fast buck piece of writing. The information printed in this "book" could have been, and probably was, gleaned from a three hour study of heat pump information readily available on Wikipedia and other general internet sources. I should have realized that 78 pages will not yield even semi-detailed or any useful information beyond the most general grade school generalities of what heat pumps can do. I tried getting a refund for my Kindle version but I was too late. A total waste of $9.99 but I perhaps should have known better at that price.