COVER STORY THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF HVAC SERVICE AND MAINTENANCE The requirement for service companies to appoint separate electrical, mechanical and
refrigeration engineers is now a thing of the past; the multi-disciplined engineer is now a ‘must have’. Here, Barry Coe, Daikin Applied Service National Sales Manager, explains why this change is just the tip of the iceberg.
The HVAC space has come a long way since I first joined the industry as a Field Service Apprentice, over 30 years ago. HVAC has become essential across many sectors; HVAC plant sizes have increased and complex solutions are being designed to meet tighter efficiency requirements. In order to maintain a higher level of efficiency, HVAC service and maintenance is integral to ensuring the HVAC plant is running at its most optimum level.
We are also finding that with ever increasing energy prices, the emphasis for tailored service and maintenance packages has increased over time. Your standard tick box maintenance packages are becoming less common. FMs and end users are now looking for more value from their
contracts. They want to work with companies who are driven to preserving the efficiency and life-cycle of the equipment and overall extend the life-cycle of the plant.
With regular maintenance being the key to reliability, service providers need to work closely with FMs to not only maintain the building plant for critical continuous operation, but to continuously monitor the systems, with the target of preventative maintenance, reducing downtime and ultimately reducing the building energy usage.
The role of a service and maintenance organisation is not just to provide a ‘maintenance package’ to the FM or end user. Service and maintenance organisations now take on more of a consultative role whereby their extensive knowledge and experience helps to prolong the life of the equipment and work on continuous approaches to reducing the plants running cost.
Both chiller and air handling unit plant systems need to be regularly maintained to ensure smooth, trouble free operation. With regular service and maintenance programmes in place, unexpected breakdowns can be reduced by up to 70%, with system operation downtime reduced by up to 40%.
Chiller maintenance is extensive and whilst the onsite FM team can carry out some basic weekly checks there is a recommendation of multiple service engineer visits per year covering the following:
Mechanical check: such as chilled water flow, air in the system and pressure drop.
Refrigeration check: such as suction and discharge pressures, sub cooling, superheat and expansion valve operation; also to meet the F-Gas requirements in today’s legislation.
Electrical inspection: such as on wiring, sensors, system safety switches, operating currents and transducers.
Unit inspection: such as fault generation, response monitoring, condenser and evaporator condition reporting, controls values and settings.
These service areas will help ensure that the chiller remains in good working order. Whilst Air Handling Unit
16 | TOMORROW’S FM
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