OPTIMISING MAINTENANCE

It's important to schedule regular maintenance and inspections of your HVAC system, says Enrico Menzel, director technical services, Berkeley Services.

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There are a lot of HVAC systems available in the market to cater to a wide variety of cooling demands. Giving an example of the split AC, which is the most popular type of air conditioning unit, Enrico Menzel, director technical services, Berkeley Services, says: "When air filters or coils become dirty, it obstructs airflow, decreases the HVAC system's efficiency, reduces cooling performance, strains other components of the AC unit, and attempts to reach the temperature set on the thermostat, despite the system's shortcomings. Alternatively, thermostats that are improperly installed or not calibrated regularly can malfunction, resulting in temperature discrepancies or causing the HVAC system to run for longer than necessary, which increases energy costs and shortens the lifespan of the asset."

To prevent or resolve such issues, it's important to schedule regular maintenance and inspections of your HVAC system, including cleaning or replacing air filters, cleaning coils, checking, and calibrating thermostats, inspecting refrigerant lines, and clearing drain lines. Additionally, it's important to address any issues promptly and not delay repairs, as this can lead to more significant problems and higher repair costs in the long run. Menzel adds: "We can also use loT in helping towards a Balanced Proactive Maintenance regime for the assets, where data parameters are taken into consideration, benchmarks identified etc, to assess the performance of the asset type against the OEM output specification for the asset. Data once assessed, can then be generated to accurately predict the maintenance regime of the assets which would lead to enhancing the overall efficiency and lifespan of the asset."