Equipment Maintenance: Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) in Massachusetts and Rhode Island: ADVANCE Air & Heat Company, Inc.

Maintenance Do's and Don'ts

DON'T Stop at a Filter Change. Clean filters are only half the battle! Your heating, cooling and refrigeration equipment is complex. In order to operate at its most efficient, it needs air flow, proper refrigerant charge, correct electrical voltage & current, fully-functional components and controllers and more… If any or all of these parts are not up to par, you will not get the performance or the longevity you want out of your equipment, no matter how many times you change the filters.

DON'T settle for a cookie-cutter maintenance agreement. Different operating conditions and demand loads make for different maintenance needs. A bank office has very different maintenance needs than a fish processing plant. Always make sure that your maintenance agreement is tailored to your maintenance needs.

DO plan for maintenance at least twice per year.In order to ensure proper heating and cooling, maintenance should be scheduled to those systems at the beginning of both the heating and cooling seasons.

DO have HVACR professionals maintain your equipment. Although you can have your regular maintenance personnel change filters as needed, you should retain the services of an HVACR professional who is familiar with the complex operations and components of your HVAC and refrigeration systems to do your comprehensive preventative maintenance. It will save you money in the long term.

Preventative Maintenance SAVES you Money!

Up until now, there was no useful way to calculate the cost-benefit of preventative maintenance. After all, much of the benefit of preventative maintenance is the "prevention" part - meaning if you do it, bad things won't happen. But how do you calculate the cost-benefit of something that may or may not happen? Consequences vary wildly by customer, industry, time of year and type of problem.

Recent studies prove that whether or not disaster strikes, the cost of performing preventative maintenance costs LESS than if you don't maintain at all.

The three main areas to consider when calculating the cost-benefit of maintenance are:

Based on a study done by Nu-Calgon, a manufacturer of HVAC products for over 50 years, a 10-ton cooling unit costs an average of $1,650 to operate over the length of one cooling season. The same unit running with dirty coils will use an additional $618 of electricity during the same period.

Based on our own figures, average maintenance costs on that same unit for the cooling season would typically be about $400. (See our Sample Maintenance Agreement). That's $200 LESS than the money you spent NOT maintaining. And that's with just a dirty coil. According to ASHRAE, (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers), if your unit also has a clogged filter, energy costs go up by another $10-80 per month or up to $480 for the cooling season.

Energy Savings - Heating Maintenance

During the heating season, if your HVAC economizer malfunctions or your sensors are out of calibration, your equipment could be drawing cold outside air into your building. The additional cost to heat this cold air could be up to $1,400 per year for each malfunctioning unit. A routine check of the economizer and sensors during a maintenance visit takes only a few minutes, but could make a big difference to your bottom line.

An unmaintained boiler, with as little as 1/16" of soot buildup can increase fuel consumption by 2-8%. If it also has scale buildup (caused by naturally-present minerals in boiler water) fuel consumption may increase by an additional 2-5%. The more build-up, the less efficient the boiler will be. Average boiler maintenance costs are about $850/year for oil and $450 for gas boilers. When deciding whether or not to maintain your heating system, consider the additional costs to your fuel bills. Also consider the impact of an after-hours heat failure in the middle of a cold snap. It doesn't take long for pipes to freeze during our frigid New England winters and the cost to repair and clean up after burst heating pipes is high.

Cost of Service Calls

Cost of Shortened Unit Life-Span A well-made HVAC unit should last between 10-20 years on average, though we service some 30-plus year old ones that are still going strong. Manufacturers calculate the average unit lifespan based on the unit running within specified temperatures and pressures, and assuming regular maintenance is being done. When maintenance is not done, the unit runs outside of acceptable temperatures and pressures which causes additional wear and tear on the unit, shortening its overall lifespan and causing premature failure of its components. To put it into numbers, if you have a $10,000 HVAC unit with a forecasted lifespan of 10 years and you assume maintenance costs at $700 per year (for both heating and cooling), your total 10-year investment is $17,000. If you take the same $10,000 unit and do no maintenance, you can expect to replace the unit before the end of its ten year life, costing (if you're lucky) another $10,000. That's $20,000 in the same ten years. However, you can't forget to add in the extra energy usage from your dirty unit - $7,000-$11,000 over ten years. Now your 10-year total is $31,000. That's $14,000 more and you had poor climate control for ten years!

Cost of Shortened Unit Life-Span

A well-made HVAC unit should last between 10-20 years on average, though we service some 30-plus year old ones that are still going strong. Manufacturers calculate the average unit lifespan based on the unit running within specified temperatures and pressures, and assuming regular maintenance is being done. When maintenance is not done, the unit runs outside of acceptable temperatures and pressures which causes additional wear and tear on the unit, shortening its overall lifespan and causing premature failure of its components.

To put it into numbers, if you have a $10,000 HVAC unit with a forecasted lifespan of 10 years and you assume maintenance costs at $700 per year (for both heating and cooling), your total 10-year investment is $17,000. If you take the same $10,000 unit and do no maintenance, you can expect to replace the unit before the end of its ten year life, costing (if you're lucky) another $10,000. That's $20,000 in the same ten years. However, you can't forget to add in the extra energy usage from your dirty unit - $7,000-$11,000 over ten years. Now your 10-year total is $31,000. That's $14,000 more and you had poor climate control for ten years!

Summary

We think the numbers are fairly clear. Taken separately, the extra costs resulting from deferring maintenance - increased energy use, more service and repairs and more frequent unit replacement - are substantial. But when these costs are combined, the case for preventative maintenance really makes itself. Whether you do it by contract, by call, or have your own in-house staff take care of it, preventative maintenance can actually save you money. And your units, your energy bill, and your employees or tenants will thank you!

Benefits of a Maintenance Agreement

Many of our customers find the convenience and predictable cost of a maintenance agreement preferable to time and materials maintenance.

Whichever option you choose, preventative maintenance extends the life of your HVAC equipment, reduces the cost and hassle of emergency repairs and enhances energy-efficiency.

For more information call Advance Air at 508-763-3738 or send an email to info@advanceair.net.