In preparing for the refrigerant transition, contractors and distributors should review their inventory and become educated on the regulations.

Before servicing any refrigeration or air conditioning systems that contain an oil pump, technicians should make sure they understand the difference between net oil pressure and oil pump discharge pressure.

Summer cooling season is in full gear, which means that both technicians and their tools are being kept extremely busy.

Old homes and old HVAC systems bring the potential for asbestos — here’s what HVAC contractors and duct cleaning professionals need to know if they run into it on a jobsite.

There are numerous factors for this trend, including energy efficiency, government incentives, and technology improvement. But HVAC contractors are still the boots on the ground in this electrification mission.

Any furnace with induced draft combustion may occasionally exhibit unburned gas odor near the furnace in the off cycle.

Posted by Ciro Santilli OurBigBook via dev on Sep 17

If you need to load an RSS feed with the PHP programming language, the open source library SimplePie greatly simplifies the process of pulling in items from a feed to present on a website, store in a database or do something else coooool with the data. There's a full installation guide for SimplePie but you can skip it with just three steps:

1. Download SimplePie 1.5.
2. Copy the file autoloader.php and the folder library to a folder that's accessible from your PHP code.
3. Make note of this folder; you'll be using require_once() to load autoloader.php from that location.

SimplePie has been designed to work the same regardless a feed's format. It supports RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0, Atom and the earlier versions of RSS. Additionally it can read feed elements from nine namespaces.

Here's PHP code that loads feed items from the news site Techdirt and displays them in HTML:

// load the SimplePie library
require_once('/var/www/libraries/simplepie-1.5/autoloader.php');

// load the feed
$feed = new SimplePie();
$feed->set_feed_url('https://www.techdirt.com/feed/');
$feed->init();
$feed->handle_content_type();

// create the output
$html_output = '';
foreach ($feed->get_items() as $item) {
  $html_output .= '<p><a href="' . $item->get_link() . '">' . $item->get_title() . '</a></p>';
  $html_output .= $item->get_description();
  $html_output .= '<p>By ' . $item->get_author(0)->get_name() . ', ' . $item->get_date();
}

// display the output
ECHO <<<END
$html_output
END;


The API documentation for SimplePie_Item lists the functions that can extract data from each feed item. The versatility of the library is demonstrated by get_authors(), which can retrieve an item's authorship information whether it was in the RSS author element, Dublin Core creator, iTunes author, or Atom author.

SimplePie supports caching so that a feed isn't downloaded every time code is executed. The addition of these lines turns on caching, specifies the location of a cache folder and sets the time to use a cached version to four hours (14,400 seconds):

$feed->set_cache_location('/var/www/cache/');
$feed->set_cache_duration(14400);
$feed->enable_cache();

SimplePie was created by RSS Advisory Board member Ryan Parman, Geoffrey Sneddon and Ryan McCue. The project is currently maintained on GitHub by Malcom Blaney.

There are a lot of libraries for processing XML data with Java that can be used to read RSS feeds. One of the best is the open source library XOM created by the computer book author Elliotte Rusty Harold.

As he wrote one of his 20 books about Java and XML, Harold got so frustrated with the available Java libraries for XML that he created his own. XOM, which stands for XML Object Model, was designed to be easy to learn while still being strict about XML, requiring documents that are well-formed and utilize namespaces in complete adherence to the specification. (At the RSS Advisory Board, talk of following a spec is our love language.)

XOM was introduced in 2002 and is currently up to version 1.3.9, though all versions have remained compatible since 1.0. To use XOM, download the class library in one of the packages available on the XOM homepage. You can avoid needing any further configuration by choosing one of the options that includes third-party JAR files in the download. This allows XOM to use an included SAX parser under the hood to process XML.

Here's Java code that loads items from The Guardian's RSS 2.0 feed containing articles by Ben Hammersley, displaying them as HTML output:

// create an XML builder and load the feed using a URL
Builder bob = new Builder();
Document doc = bob.build("https://www.theguardian.com/profile/benhammersley/rss");
// load the root element and channel
Element rss = doc.getRootElement();
Element channel = rss.getFirstChildElement("channel");
// load all items in the channel
Elements items = channel.getChildElements("item");
for (Element item : items) {
  // load elements of the item
  String title = item.getFirstChildElement("title").getValue();
  String author = item.getFirstChildElement("creator",
    "http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/").getValue();
  String description = item.getFirstChildElement("description").getValue();
  // display the output
  System.out.println(">h2>" + title + ">/h2>");
  System.out.println(">p>>b>By " + author + ">/b>>/p>");
  System.out.println(">p>" + description + ">/p>");

All of the classes used in this code are in the top-level package nu.xom, which has comprehensive JavaDoc describing their use. Like all Java code this is a little long-winded, but Harold's class names do a good job of explaining what they do. A Builder uses its build() method with a URL as the argument to load a feed into a Document over the web. There are also other build methods to load a feed from a file, reader, input stream, or string.

Elements can be retrieved by their names such as "title", "link" or "description". An element with only one child of a specific type can be retrieved using the getFirstChildElement() method with the name as the argument:

Element linkElement = item.getFirstChildElement("link");

An element containing multiple children of the same type uses getChildElements() instead:

Elements enclosures = item.getChildElements("enclosure");
if (enclosures.size() > 1) {
  System.out.println("I'm pretty sure an item should only include one enclosure");
}

If an element is in a namespace, there must be a second argument providing the namespace URI. Like many RSS feeds, the ones from The Guardian use a dc:creator element from Dublin Core to credit the item's author. That namespace has the URI "http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/".

If the element specified in getFirstChildElement() or getChild Elements() is not present, those methods return null. You may need to check for this when adapting the code to load other RSS feeds.

If the name Ben Hammersley sounds familiar, he coined the term "podcasting" in his February 2004 article for The Guardian about the new phenomenon of delivering audio files in RSS feeds.

Analyst Jean Bricmont offers a deep analysis of how France's left-leaning coalition swept a plurality of seats in the recent snap elections.

A new ballot measure in California would reverse progress on reducing mass incarceration. Here's what our regular correspondent Dortell Williams has to say about it.

“We need more white relatives to face their own truth, though doing so may bring immense discomfort,” says Edgar Villanueva.

Marjorie Kelly's new book critiques the U.S. economy's embrace of "wealth supremacy," and explores alternate models of democratic economies.

A two-step card check process is efficient, making it easier for workers to unionize with a simple majority.

Childhood poverty continues to plague the U.S., though simple solutions exist to address it. Will the next administration implement them?

handy reference

I found a great resource by Joyce Valenza on Never Ending Search that I wanted to share with you. In her post, Google search by usage rights, she demonstrates an easy way to find copyright-friendly images on Google Image Search.

First, enter your search term into Google Images and then click on Search Tools and then Usage Rights.

Measuring power quality and finding a bugbear in the network which is messing with the power are considered a highly paid job. Every electrical network and its problems with harmonics, transients, or disturbances are unique and need careful planning, setting... Read more

The post How to measure power quality? What devices should you use and what to measure? appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

New Articles Entry: 'How to start and end IELTS letters' has just been added to the Articles area of UsingEnglish.com.

New Articles Entry: 'How to teach starting and ending meetings' has just been added to the Articles area of UsingEnglish.com.

New Articles Entry: 'How to write informal IELTS letters' has just been added to the Articles area of UsingEnglish.com.

New Articles Entry: 'How to write formal IELTS General Writing Task 1 letters' has just been added to the Articles area of UsingEnglish.com.

Chillers are the single largest energy-using component in most facilities, and can typically consume over 50% of the electrical usage. Chillers use approximately 20% of the total electrical power generated in North America and the U.S. Department of Energy estimates... Read more

The post How to Maximize Chiller Efficiency? appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

For the last several decades, every engineering task related to processing control is realized by the use of PLC (Programmable Logic Controller). If we are talking about induction motor control, which is the most common case, usually a VFD (Variable... Read more

The post Learn how to use PLC and VFD for pump control: Power and control circuits analysis appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

Most compensation banks are controlled stepwise. For this purpose it is essential to ‘know’ when it is allowed to (de)activate a capacitor step by the power factor relay (controller). The so-called C/k value is calculated by the step size C... Read more

The post How To Control Reactive Power In Larger Electrical Plants With Multiple Incomers appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

The purpose of a capacitor bank’s protective control is to remove the bank from service before any units or any of the elements that make up a capacitor unit are exposed to more than 110% of their voltage rating. When... Read more

The post How to control and protect capacitor banks before something goes wrong appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

The next of English Teacher X's ebooks that I have read is subtitled An expatriate guide to not getting robbed, scammed, jailed or killed. In pre-Skype days, I was living in a place in SE Asia where the internet was expensive and used to use an internet cafe across the road   Most days I heard someone phoning home to ask their family to send them some money as they'd been robbed. The risks he's talking about are very real, and the first part of the book makes a lot of sense.

Like it or not, hard times are in front of us, by all means. I won’t deal the hard times now, but instead, I’ll shortly say that it’s all about the energy resources and who owns them. It’s also not... Read more

The post Best practice in hard times: How to safeguard the hundreds and thousands of substations appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

This article aims to provide a comprehensive guide to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the isolation, maintenance, and restoration of a 132kV GIS Transformer Bay and Line Bay. It will delve into detailed safety checks, specific steps to be... Read more

The post How to: Isolation, maintenance, and restoration of a 132kV GIS Transformer Bay and Line Bay appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

The accurate measurement of the voltage, current or other parameter of a power system is a prerequisite to any form of control, ranging from automatic closed-loop control to the recording of data for statistical purposes. Measurement of these parameters can... Read more

The post How to make the right selection of a digital transducer for power system measurements appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

Prevention is better than cure, we all know this, and this is true not only for people, but also for the health of your electrical and electronic components and equipment. Smart and cost-effective strategies demand an investment in surge protection.... Read more

The post How to handle overvoltages before any damage is done? Surge protection in a nutshell. appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

As we all know, all substation equipment (should) have a metal plate with its “name” on it. Here we’ll discuss power and distribution transformers and information that their nameplates carry. It’s usually attached to the tank in a visible place... Read more

The post Learn how to interpret transformer nameplate information appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

Teachers can now download Film Education's popular How to Train Your Dragon CD-ROM activities aimed at Primary Literacy.

The first choice for service and distribution voltage is almost always 480 volts. Why is that? Well, it’s because it’s traditional, it has a safe design and specifications are already written around 480 V. UPS and backup aggregate equipment are... Read more

The post How to design the power supply for data centres and airports while megawatts of loads rise fast appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

In this episode of Ask Annissa, Annissa Coy answers the following question: “I was wondering how you handle so many different specialty type things that we need to clean when it comes to contents restoration. For instance, I have a home that had a light fire and they have a six-foot, mounted bear that was in the living room.” 

This edition of Ask Annissa deals with cleaning taffeta wallpaper, which is actually a fabric and needs extra care.

Annissa gives us knowledge on how to properly bill for fire restoration services.

New this week for our weekly How-To’s powered by KnowHow, we learn how to resolve a client complaint.

It is time again for KnowHow’s monthly Case Study! This month we learn how to equip workers with technology that gives them superpowers.

New this week for our weekly How-To’s powered by KnowHow! We learn how to identify worksite hazards.

Learn how building a strong team culture, investing in leadership development, and planning for the future can set your restoration business up for long-term success.

We get a sneak peek of Howard Partridge's Full Day Workshop that he’s presenting at the fall Experience Convention and Trade Show.

This week for our weekly How-To’s powered by KnowHow, we learn how to prepare the vehicle ahead of the response!

This week for our weekly How-To’s powered by KnowHow, we learn the proper ways to inspect Personal Protective Equipment.

This week for our weekly How-To’s powered by KnowHow, we learn how to lay hard-surface floor protection.

Learn the critical steps to efficiently restore fire-damaged properties, from safety measures and site inspections to cleaning techniques and odor removal. 

Discover the chemistry of fire cleaning with this in-depth guide. Learn how solvents, chemical reactions and other scientific principles can transform soot-stained surfaces.

Transform every carpet into a vibrant, fresh space your clients can be proud of. This guide walks you through the steps to deliver professional-quality carpet cleaning results—every single time.

Learn how to effectively plan and execute mobilization efforts for hurricane CAT responses. This step-by-step guide covers everything from organizing logistics and securing financing to gathering equipment and managing labor.