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Think of preventive
HVAC maintenance
in the same way
as the preventive
maintenance for
your car: If you
dont change the
oil and replace
belts and lters,
the engine will lock
up and the vehicle
wont operate. The
same holds true for
HVAC systems.
PHOTO COURTESY OF UNICCO
notes Michael P. Bordes, senior vice president at EMCOR time. Air-handler coils need to be cleaned periodically to keep
Facilities Services and president at Norwalk, CT-based EMCOR heat transfer at maximum amounts. Boilers need to be cleaned
Services Elmhurst, IL, ofce. annually; even 1/16-inch of soot and ash on heat-exchange sur-
The rst place to turn to if you have questions about how to faces in an oil-ring boiler can reduce efciency by 10 percent.
build a successful HVAC maintenance plan should be right at And, dont forget re testing. DAscenzo suggests re test-
your ngertips or at least nearby on a bookshelf or in a desk ing and ame adjustment every 3 years. You cant just test by
drawer: Its the operating and maintenance manual, provided eyeing the ame, DAscenzo says. You can be so far off the
by the manufacturer. mark by trying to eye-adjust a ame in a boiler. Youve got to
Dont overlook these maintenance manuals. They provide a measure.
concrete blueprint for the steps you need to take to maintain Predictive maintenance is also important. By tracking dif-
chillers, boilers, motors, air-handling units every piece of ferent system indicators such as oil temperature, RPM speeds,
equipment in a buildings HVAC system. Manufacturers spend and other factors, you can pick up on many emerging problems
a lot of time and money testing their equipment to determine before they reach a crisis situation. A lot of different diagnostics
what the maintenance needs are, says Walter M. DAscenzo, can point to issues where service isnt being performed in the
senior project manager at Fairfax, VA-based Facility Engineering repetitive, regular nature that it is supposed to be, Bordes says.
Associates PC. They put this information into the manuals; its Building automation systems can be invaluable in mainte-
all there in black and white. These maintenance manuals were nance diagnostics by greatly improving response time to main-
not dreamt up in a conference room over doughnuts and coffee. tenance issues via troubleshooting.
If you dont have the original manuals, you can easily get When you have someone sitting at a PC and [looking at]
replacements. Call your manufacturers representative with the the issues to see what is going on, nine times out of 10 you
pertinent model and serial numbers, and they can get you the can nd out what is causing the problem and correct it with
replacement information you need. a keystroke, notes Jeffrey T. Hunt, senior project manager at
Once you read the manuals and consider your systems spe- Fairfax, VA-based Facility Engineering Associates PCs Dallas
cic needs, you will have all the necessary information to get a ofce. These building automation systems can also be linked to
successful preventive and predictive maintenance program off computerized maintenance management systems (CMMSs) to
the ground one that is tailored to your buildings HVAC sys- further enhance your operations.
tem and operating environment.
Keeping Tabs on Work
Focus Areas Once you have your plan ironed out, take the list of HVAC
Some aspects of a maintenance plan are simple change the tasks that need to be done monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.,
oil, change the belts, change the lters (just like your car). But, and input them into your maintenance management system,
to keep a system operating at maximum efciency, youll need along with any of the documentation that goes with it, whether
to expend more elbow grease beyond the basics from time to it is a paper-based system or a computerized one. Just make
sure it is easily retrievable for anyone who works on the sys- it has been maintained and operated. A life-cycle cost analysis
tem. A solid program should provide a comprehensive history will consider the current condition and efciency of the unit.
of maintenance conducted on every piece of equipment, as well Lets say you have a 30-year-old chiller and have spent more
as the corrective costs incurred. money than anticipated on maintenance; and, new chillers have
You need a good, clear record of service being performed twice the efciency of the old chiller. The decision to replace is
and when it was performed, Bordes says. You need to keep a an easy one, Hunt says, if you run a life-cycle cost analysis.
paper trail. If you do, you will be able to see trends and better Ideally, the ratio of spending for HVAC systems should be
predict what should be done. 70-percent preventive maintenance and 30-percent correc-
Placing stickers on your equipment is another way to keep tive maintenance, according to Shaker these numbers are
maintenance professionals apprised of the work that has been benchmarks that UNICCO professionals use in charting the
done on a systems many and varied components. A simple effectiveness of client maintenance programs. If the correc-
decal affixed to the equipment that lists the last time the tive maintenance level is up to 70 percent, you know your
equipment was serviced, what was done, and who serviced it program is out of control, he says. The buildings where the
is invaluable. [This way], you have a record of the last time numbers are in reverse are the buildings that people dont
someone was in this piece of [HVAC] equipment and what they want to be in. Thats what happens when preventive mainte-
did to it, Ashwood says. All it takes is a quick visual check. nance isnt instituted.
While every piece of equipment will need to be replaced
Repair vs. Replace eventually, following a stringent, comprehensive maintenance
In any systems life-cycle, there comes a point where you schedule will prolong your buildings HVAC system and main-
need to decide whether its scally and practically feasible to tain not only a healthy bottom line, but happy, satised, and
continue maintaining and repairing an aging, degrading piece comfortable tenants.
of equipment. Its important to do a life-cycle cost analysis For the most part, facilities [managers] understand the expo-
when determining if you should repair or replace an aging sure they have in large capital expenditures with negligence
HVAC system component, Hunt says. when it comes to preventive and predictive maintenance, espe-
To keep the unit going, do you replace the part, which will cially [with] air-handlers, large chillers, and pumping systems,
cost X dollars, or do you replace the entire unit? he asks. Bordes says. They are aware of the necessity and the [responsi-
Consider all costs in a life-cycle cost analysis the cost of the bility] they have nancially if they neglect it. B
equipment, maintenance, and even energy. Maybe you are 10
years into the units life-cycle; it might have a typical service life Robin Suttell (rsuttell@cox.net), based in Cleveland, is contribut-
of 15 years, but has only a little life left in it because of the way ing editor at Buildings magazine.
Reprinted with permission from Buildings, July 2006. Stamats Business Media.
All Rights Reserved. On the Web at www.buildings.com. FosteReprints: 1-866-879-9144