Commercial HVAC Preventative Maintenance Experts
Why Do You Need a Commercial HVAC Preventative Maintenance Expert?
If you are responsible for the HVAC system in your building, you should be asking yourself whether you need an expert in HVAC preventative maintenance.
A regular preventative program may seem like a lot of expense when you could just deal with problems as they happen and schedule service on an as-needed basis. Right? Unfortunately, this is what a lot of property managers and building owners think and what gets a lot of buildings into trouble when they least need it. The end result: higher repair bills and significant increases in capital replacement budgets.
So why hire an expert in HVAC preventative maintenance? In a nutshell, a commercial HVAC preventative maintenance expert will save you money in the long term. And as with many things, that’s the bottom line – money saved.
How Does a Preventative Maintenance Expert Save You Money?
With a skilled commercial HVAC preventative maintenance expert working for you, you’ll see that the smart money is on a preventative program for your HVAC system. It’s a long term solution that can make a whole lot of sense. Money spent on an HVAC preventative maintenance program is usually more than made up for by the resulting increased efficiency of equipment. There will be a reduction in breakdowns, which will help your company avoid high equipment replacement and repair costs and that will ultimately lengthen the entire system’s lifespan. Regular preventative maintenance checkups can also avoid the costly downtime and product loss associated with breakdowns.
A modern HVAC system is made up of many complex pieces of machinery. Pumps, fans, heat exchangers, electric motors, compressors, electronic controls and more all work together to provide the best possible comfort levels for your indoor environment. Each piece needs to do its part for the system to function efficiently. Proper and regular maintenance of machinery that is installed and sized correctly will ensure that the system continues to operate smoothly for many years to come. And in these environmentally conscious times, routine preventative maintenance can help reduce harmful emissions, reduce electricity usage and reduce waste.
But without regular preventative maintenance, you put the entire system at risk.
Is It Really Just Bad Luck?
First off, there’s a good reason why HVAC systems break down at the worst possible times, when it’s either freezing cold or blistering hot outside. And when that breakdown happens, everyone suffers… and complains. To top it all off, all across the city HVAC systems are breaking down too. This means that repairs will take longer to get started and emergency repair service will cost you more money as non-availability of technicians and overtime rates apply. Those are stressful situations you definitely want to avoid.
But don’t be fooled. It’s not bad luck or karma or any other kind of Murphy’s law type explanation that causes HVAC equipment to break down when it’s most needed. It is because these are the times when your HVAC system is most overworked.
A poorly maintained system will have to work much harder when the equipment – faced with extremes in outdoor conditions – is not in prime working order. Grimy cooling coils, for example, can’t transfer as much heat as designed to and the equipment needs to run longer and harder than it was engineered to do. Eventually the system reaches a breaking point.
For equipment to run most efficiently, all parts need to be in good shape. Any weak links puts the entire system in jeopardy.
As any technician will be able to tell you, when the HVAC system becomes too stressed to function properly, it will break down. Preventing these instances well before they occur is the key to a healthy HVAC system.
A preventative maintenance expert will put your HVAC system on a program so that all parts are inspected and serviced regularly and in an orderly fashion.
What Tasks Do a Preventative Maintenance Expert Perform for Your HVAC System?
Equipment that is serviced regularly through a strata HVAC preventative maintenance and service program means that necessary repairs can be carried out when jobs are small and manageable. Simple mechanical tasks like replacing air filters and fan belts are important steps to keep on top of, but that are often neglected. As well, visual and auditory inspections can help diagnose abnormalities in function. For instance, noisy bearings and oil leaks will be promptly followed up on by an experienced preventative maintenance expert to locate potential problem areas. Or even more importantly, gas leaks can be found, which could be posing a health risk to the people occupying your building.
While it’s true that in-house inspections of a commercial building’s HVAC system can save money, a skilled and experienced commercial HVAC preventative maintenance expert will be able to spot problems easily missed by those not dedicated to servicing HVAC systems. It takes a properly trained and well experienced HVAC technician to see the clues pointing to potential trouble areas and become fully attuned to a comprehensive visual and aural check of equipment. Without the expert eyes and ears, as well as systematized dedication to ensuring equipment is running at peak performance, small problems quickly turn into larger – and costlier – ones.
In addition, in-house staff inspections are often easily postponed by more pressing and urgent tasks. A consistent schedule to maintaining and checking HVAC equipment is key to a preventative maintenance program that will save the most money over the long term. With a schedule in place – much like a regular dentist appointment – you can have peace of mind that your HVAC system is taken care of by experts who will baby the equipment into the most efficient and longest living HVAC system possible. With savings on massive capital expenditures for too early replacements, a preventative maintenance expert more than makes up for the cost of a preventative maintenance program.
Furthermore, if you opt for a more comprehensive commercial HVAC preventative maintenance program that includes cleaning of the equipment, you ensure the continued efficiency of the system. Maintenance, cleaning and regularly scheduled equipment checks done in a systematized and orderly fashion mean that equipment stays at optimum efficiency.
Finally, many components of a major inspection are complex and should not be done by anyone other than a certified expert. Checking heat exchangers, gas burners, cooling coils, compressors and refrigerant pressures must be done in a safe manner. All of these tasks, plus more, are what HVAC preventative maintenance technicians are trained to do.
Saving money and aggravation, as well as giving peace of mind on those days when the thermometer hits blistering highs or teeth-chattering lows, is what a commercial HVAC preventative maintenance expert can give you. In addition, avoiding the costs of replacing costly HVAC equipment is a major benefit of getting on a proper program.
Speak with SD ATLAS HVAC to discuss the preventative maintenance programs available for your building. As experts in preventative maintenance, SD ATLAS HVAC has seen firsthand the rewards of getting on a program and sticking to it.