Preventive HVAC Maintenance Is Just as Important in Commercial Settings

Keeping your home HVAC system well-tuned and well maintained is crucial to ensuring consistent, reliable performance and indoor comfort. Whether you use a furnace, central air conditioner or heat pump, preventive HVAC maintenance should be performed at least annually to prevent malfunctions and breakdowns during the height of heating or cooling season.

Preventive HVAC maintenance is no less important in your business operations. The failure of a heating or cooling system in a commercial setting could be anything from a minor inconvenience to a catastrophe. At the very least, your employees and customers will be uncomfortable while the system is out; at the worst, a commercial HVAC failure could lead to spoiled goods, frozen water pipes, floods or facility damage.

To prevent these problems and to keep the heating and cooling systems at your place of business working at its best, contact your local trusted HVAC service provider and schedule a preventive maintenance inspection and tune-up. Preventive maintenance is most effective when it’s performed annually. A good rule of thumb is to schedule maintenance for your HVAC equipment in the spring for cooling systems and in the fall for heating systems.

Benefits of preventive maintenance
There are many benefits to preventive HVAC maintenance, including:

• Improved HVAC efficiency: A well-maintained furnace, air conditioner or heat pump will operate at its highest possible level of efficiency, making the best use of the fuel and electricity it consumes to maintain your indoor environment.
• Decreased heating and cooling bills: A well-maintained system will use less energy and fuel, which will decrease your monthly utility costs. In addition, HVAC equipment that’s kept in good shape won’t overwork or need to run more often to make up for deficiencies in performance.
• Improved heating and cooling: You’ll see more effective heating and cooling from a system that’s been properly adjusted and fitted with newer components.
• Less chance of breakdowns or malfunctions: Preventive HVAC maintenance is designed to find and correct problems before they occur. A well-maintained HVAC system will be less likely to malfunction or break down and will have an increased functional lifespan.

Maintenance tasks
When you hire a professional HVAC technician to inspect your HVAC system and conduct preventive maintenance, there are some tasks that he will probably perform on both heating and cooling systems:

• Check and ensure proper operation of system controls.
• Check and calibrate thermostat.
• Clean and tighten electrical connections and plugs.
• Lubricate fans, motors and other moving parts.
• Check condensate drains to ensure they’re not clogged.
• Inspect ductwork systems for leaks, loose connections or damage.
• Check fans and blowers and make sure belts are tight and undamaged.

In addition, for cooling systems, the technician should:

• Check and fill refrigerant level.
• Check for refrigerant leaks.
• Clean evaporator and condenser coils.

For heating systems, the technician should:

• Check the heat exchanger for cracks or damage.
• Check fuel lines and electrical power sources.
• Inspect and clean combustion chambers.
• Clean, adjust and test burners.
• Check and adjust ignition system and safety controls.
• Test thermocouple.
• Check flues and vents for carbon monoxide leaks.

Planned maintenance agreements
In a commercial setting, a planned maintenance agreement is a convenient and economical way to ensure your HVAC equipment is taken care of regularly and on time. A planned maintenance agreement, often called a service contract, will:

• Provide necessary maintenance services on a pre-set schedule that ensures your HVAC equipment is checked out and tuned up when needed.
• Allow you to avoid delays in maintenance service that commonly occur at the beginning of the heating and cooling season.
• Permit you to let the service provider track when maintenance is due, relieving you of one more responsibility.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about Plumbing, HVACR, Fire Protection and Alarm Systems in Mechanical, Commercial and Residential settings. For more information about the importance of preventive HVAC maintenance in your commercial facility and to view projects we’ve worked on, visit our website!

Image Credit: pennstatenews