HVAC SYSTEMS
Neglecting coil cleaning can be a false economy
Paul Osborne, Service manager for Aermec UK, highlights the importance of regular condenser coil cleaning – which he says is often neglected – in keeping hospital HVAC plant running smoothly and efficiently, and minimising such equipment’s energy consumption and running costs.
With healthcare costs escalating, hospitals across the country are continually looking for ways to streamline operations so that more can be directed at patient care. HVAC plant is costly to run, and a huge consumer of energy, but estates and facilities managers could use up to 30% less energy by simply including coil cleaning as part of their planned preventative maintenance programme. How much do dirty condenser coils cost your hospital? No idea? You are not alone. Condenser coil cleaning is one of the most overlooked maintenance jobs. The dirtier that the coils get, the more they increase the compressor’s energy consumption, while reducing the ability to transfer heat – putting additional stress on components, and increasing the likelihood of premature failures and costly repair bills. One of the easiest and most cost- effective tasks that can be carried out to maximise the energy efficiencies of your chiller plant is to have the condenser coils inspected regularly and cleaned when necessary. Dirty coils can impact significantly on energy efficiencies, affect the longevity of your HVAC systems, and compromise internal environments. While all too often coil cleaning gets overlooked or postponed as part of cutting back on maintenance bills, such false economy could cost you dearly.
Planned preventative maintenance When it comes to managing your building’s assets, planned preventative maintenance is a key element, and the best way both to ensure optimal performance, and to protect the longevity of your HVAC plant while staving off failures. Yet all too often cleaning the coils on air-cooled chillers and condensers is disregarded in a bid to cut costs – dirty coils can increase compressor energy
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The dirtier the coils get, the more they increase the compressor’s energy consumption.
consumption by as much as 30%. In the long run clogged coils end up costing you more.
An ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers) study showed that cleaning coils as part of good maintenance practice could improve energy efficiencies by as much as 10-15%. However, it is not just old systems that need cleaning. Chiller efficiencies have improved considerably thanks to advances in technology, but systems with higher SEER (Seasonal Efficiency Energy Ratio) ratings lose much of their
Too often cleaning the coils on air-cooled chillers and condensers is disregarded in a bid to cut costs – dirty coils can increase compressor energy consumption by as much as 30%
126 Health Estate Journal October 2019
effectiveness when forced to run harder than is necessary, so, the newer and more efficient your HVAC system, the more it will benefit from regular inspections and a cleaning programme. With rising costs and increasing demands on equipment, no estates manager can afford to ignore coil cleaning, which could lead to an unpleasant spike in energy bills, and comprise the overall performance level of your chiller system.
Postponed to reduce costs All too frequently coil cleaning is not part of a PPM contract. PPM engineers are typically concerned with the overall running of the plant, and more specifically the mechanical and electrical aspects, while cuts in maintenance contracts mean coil cleaning is either not specified, or postponed, to reduce their costs. There’s no getting away from the fact that coils do get dirty, and are often in areas difficult to
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