30 Service and Maintenance
Safety measures – working at height
Service and maintenance is essential to ensure systems perform effi- ciently and safely. However, air conditioning units are often mounted on roofs which increases the health and safety risks. Dan Rushton, commercial manager at Big Foot Systems, explains how non-penetrative frameworks have evolved to overcome the challenges of maintaining equipment on flat roofs.
TODAY, MAINTENANCE is a big issue for the air conditioning (AC) sector. With the current climate of austerity, properly maintaining an AC system is important to keep end-user costs down. Poor maintenance can increase operating costs by between 15% and 25% and in the worst case scenario could result in a costly break down, leading to down time and then requiring a new system to be installed. Regular maintenance also helps companies ensure air conditioning plant is leak tight, which is mandatory under F-Gas legislation. Any organisation using AC equipment that operates on HFC refrigerants must ensure it meets requirements under the EC F-Gas Regulation or risk a fine of £5,000 for non- compliance.
Meanwhile, with buildings accounting for 20% of the UK’s carbon emissions it is
essential to reduce CO2 in a bid to meet UK carbon targets. Within the AC sector this has been recognised by the need for air conditioning systems to be inspected every five years by an energy assessor to monitor efficiency – otherwise end-users can be fined £300.
However, maintenance work can be risky. Throughout Europe, between 15% and 20% of injuries at work happen during maintenance work. For service engineers maintaining AC systems the risks are raised since the location of the units often requires working at height.
Today roofs may be host to a wide range of services and pipework, and a simple trip can become the devastating cause of a fatality. Falls from height
ACR News May 2014
are still the most common fatal accident in the UK workplace. Despite these facts
maintenance is not something that can be ignored since unmaintained AC systems could potentially cause a bigger risk to a greater number of people. So how can risks be reduced for AC engineers? There are two main areas to consider to help make rooftop maintenance easier. First, safe access equipment should be installed to allow safe passage to the AC units and second, AC equipment should be mounted to make access and maintenance easy.
Safe Access
With safe access equipment companies need to ensure it is manufactured from appropriate materials to ensure it is robust and can withstand harsh conditions. Wooden gantries, steps and frames will rot if not maintained. Meanwhile, walkways and step overs need to be slip free. Load management is another key consideration. The roof must be strong enough to support the load of additional safe access equipment and the pedestrians using it. Traditionally, penetrative systems have been used on flat roofs when a safe access system was required. This can affect roof membrane integrity and cause potential problems with thermal bridging. However, in recent years there has been an evolution in safe access equipment, moving away from penetrative options towards non-penetrative safe access frameworks.
These frameworks offer secure and easy access to roof-top AC equipment using
standard and custom designed site-assembled, safe access walkways, platforms and step-over solutions. Recyclable and repeatable, they meet the changing needs of a building and can be moved or adapted.
Standard and custom step overs allow for the safe passage of personnel accessing rooftop equipment over obstacles, such as chilled water pipework. When
manufactured from GRP and/ or galvanised metalwork the equipment is robust
and can withstand anything the elements can throw at it. Finally, load management is essential when installing safe access equipment on flat roofs. Limited space, existing upstands and lightweight roofs may all require custom support solutions.
AC Mounting
As well as safe access to cooling equipment, companies also need to consider the siting of the AC units to aid maintenance. Air conditioning systems ideally should be raised from a flat roof to aid performance and maintenance as well as ensuring they are above any ponds of water and ice that may accumulate. Traditionally, when mounting AC units on flat roofs many engineers have often opted for concrete slabs
as a simple, speedy, cheap, support solution. However, this installation solution can cause expensive long-term problems. If concrete slabs are placed directly on a flat roof with a single ply membrane the slabs can tear through the membrane, which can lead to destructive roof leaks – thus potentially causing costly damage. Plus, AC units positioned directly on a roof can be tricky to maintain due to access issues.
Meanwhile, with the potentially high wind speeds found on rooftops it is essential AC units are supported securely since wind pressure could cause the units to tip over with potentially dangerous consequences for the maintenance engineer and those below. Unfortunately, concrete slabs do not offer the
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