Extend the Life of your Building’s Mechanical Systems THROUGH PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE
By Brian M. Malone, P.E., C.E.M., C.E.A., LEED AP, Caitlin Levitsky, LEED AP BD+C, Matthew D. Swanson, C.E.M, C.E.A., LEED AP (Elara Engineering)
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as complex as pulling a burner to inspect a boiler’s heat exchanger. A checklist of maintenance activities and intervals (i.e. daily, quarterly, seasonally, etc.) should be identified for each piece of major equipment or system and aligned with the recommendations of the specified manufacturer.
There are a multitude of centralized mechanical systems employed for space heating, cooling and ventilation in multifamily buildings that are determined based on the specifics of the building structure (i.e. space constraints and construction), the building vintage and ownership’s objectives at the time of installation. Therefore, it is important that your maintenance plan is prepared
specifically for your building and the mechanical systems it is operating. For example, the recommended maintenance associated with a steam heating system is significantly different than the maintenance recommended for a hot water or electric resistance heating system. Similarly, there are extensive differences in the maintenance and operation of chilled water and direct expansion (DX) cooling systems with several other system variations commonly applied to multifamily buildings.
In many cases, major mechanical equipment is well maintained and documented. In contrast, other, smaller and less visible portions of the system can be easily overlooked as their failure or non-optimal operation can have a less
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