SERVICE & MAINTENANCE
Maintaining performance
When selecting a fan coil, energy efficiency and noise levels may be two of the biggest drivers but for air conditioning engineers it is vital to also choose a fan coil unit that is easy to service and maintain to help ensure performance and to avoid costly call backs. John Hepper, technical director at Diffusion explains how the Highline 235 fits the bill.
W
hen it comes to selecting a fan coil unit energy efficiency and low sound levels will often be top of the
requirements for specifiers. However, to ensure a fan coil performs as it is designed, meeting its optimum energy efficiency and sound levels, it needs to be installed correctly, commissioned and maintained. Not only is this important to ensure fan coil performance for clients but also for AC engineers it is vital to be able to service and maintain a fan coil quickly, easily and as risk-free as possible. This saves the client money and the engineer time. It also preserves a good reputation for everyone involved, manufacturer, specifier and AC contractor. Expensive call backs need to be avoided. Selecting a reputable manufacturer’s fan coil unit and having a service contract is vitally important. Regular maintenance helps ensure fan coil units operate reliably and efficiently. This means checking and cleaning filters regularly and cleaning coils every six months. A more thorough annual inspection should also take place. This includes all filters being checked, cleaned and replaced where necessary, with wire mesh filters being thoroughly examined for damage. The fin surfaces should be washed
20 May 2023 •
www.acr-news.com
down to eliminate any dirt, lint or foreign matter. Drain pans and drain line should be checked for any sediment and washed out, ensuring that the drainage is not restricted. In addition, wiring should be checked for damage including ensuring wiring looms are correctly retained and not stretched between terminations. Casings should be checked for any signs of corrosion and access panels seals should be checked to ensure the unit’s air-tightness.
Design To achieve a thorough annual inspection and to clean filters and coils regularly it is important fan coil units offer easy access to their components. Fortunately, the latest fan coil units, like Diffusion’s new Highline 235 modular fan coil range, have been developed with this in mind. Every aspect of the fan coil design has been considered. Not only does the new Highline 235 tick all the specification boxes with it offering improved performance, with Specific Fan Powers (SFP) as low as 0.14 W/l/s, and exceedingly low sound levels, with the range’s noise ratings spanning from NR25 to NR40, but the design has also made the fan coils easy to service and maintain. This is largely thanks to a
full width access panel giving easy access to key components including the heat exchanger, coils and fans.
Modular design Another key feature of the latest fan coils is modular design, this enables the specifier ultimate flexibility to build the unit they need for their specific application including attenuator and plenum options to be easily selected to suit the application. This makes it very simple to replace any parts of the fan coil if required as part of ongoing service and maintenance. But this is not the only benefit, modular design is of particular importance to buildings that have a change of use, since the units can be re- configured on-site to suit the new purpose of the building and new configuration, this saves purchasing new models which is costly and wasteful making it another sustainability benefit. For example, if a space changes from open plan to an office it is possible to easily reconfigure the unit to meet the necessary noise regulations by simply adding an attenuator to the modular design.
Diffusion’s new Highline 235 range’s design options are almost limitless as the range
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