45 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Old School Information, Nothing New For This Generation!, July 16, 2005
This review is from: Audel HVAC Fundamentals, Air Conditioning, Heat Pumps and Distribution Systems (Paperback)
Not a very good book. The author James E. Brumbaugh must be recycling his information from the 1st edition. This book is very old school. The pictures are in black and white and seem to be recycled pictures from HVAC theory back in 1960's era.
I would not recommend purchasing this book. I hope the author's next edition will be in color with more "new school" information such as a "Puron" refridgerant techology, modern day HVAC servicing procedures such as "EPA Section 608" information, and more up to date pictures - take pictures of new housing and commercial construction, factory workers putting units together, and a technician working on a actual unit. James E. Brumbaugh is very "old school".
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Up-to-date But Still Relevant, February 2, 2006
This review is from: Audel HVAC Fundamentals, Air Conditioning, Heat Pumps and Distribution Systems (Paperback)
The controls section of this book needs to be updated, but 90% of the book is still relevant. The text tends to lag behind the images, but this book is packed with a ton of helpful information and plenty of pictures. If you're a mechanic and you're working with older equipment, maybe this book is exactly what you're looking for. This is the second book that I bought by Mr. Brumbaugh, and I noticed there's a little over lapping, but still, this book is a few bucks and what you'll get out of it is worth it.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good first book, October 9, 2008
This review is from: Audel HVAC Fundamentals, Air Conditioning, Heat Pumps and Distribution Systems (Paperback)
I note the two earlier reviews saying this book is very old school, somewhat dated, and the figures are all black and white, lacks information on newer technology, such as Puro, etc.
For a homeowner with very little previous knowledge who wanted to get a leg up on the area, though, this book was fine as a first read. Also note that the book isn't that expensive, especially if you're buying newer books, or more engineering level books, you can pay $100 or more for those.
So for me the book was all right. I needed a basic intro and this fit the bill. Also, the chapter on gas burners and heaters is the most extensive, which is what I have, at over 80 pages. The other chapters on oil, electric, hydronic, etc., are shorter, but gas is the most common and important these days.
I also don't mind the black and white illustrations. I worked in the publishing industry for 7 years, and too often color is misused just for aesthetic effect in educational books and doesn't add to the clarity of the presentation. In that case, I would prefer to have a much cheaper black and white book since the cost of color illustrations is several times that of black and white.
I found Brumbaugh's writing style clear and concise. Technical books can be monotonous and boring, but a good technical writer can minimize that problem, and Brumbaugh is more than competent at presenting the topic.
At just under 700 pages including the index, it's a lot of information for a reasonable price. Overall, a pretty good value, and after reading this book, I feel comfortable going on to the more technical, more up to date volumes on the subject.
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