Dylan Rogers
Whether you manage a network of convenience stores or are the regional facilities director for essential healthcare treatment locations, controlling the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is of critical importance.
Here are a few simple steps you can take with your HVAC units to protect your physical locations, your employees, and those you serve during this global pandemic:
HVAC units are under near-constant use in both warm and cold weather—they keep the indoor climate comfortable and clean year-round. In addition to expected wear and tear from frequent use, HVAC units are also continuously exposed to the elements. All the weather that we don’t experience indoors takes its toll, especially on rooftop HVAC units where the wind and weather hit hardest.
For these reasons, it’s important to maintain your HVAC preventative maintenance programs even if your organization’s physical locations are temporarily inactive in light of the coronavirus. If your HVAC units go unchecked during this time, vital components could suffer and repair needs could grow. Along with monitoring the physical units themselves, check to ensure that energy outputs and temperature readings are appropriate for the current activity levels within your facilities.
Without keeping up your HVAC preventative maintenance, your reactive maintenance spending will inevitably increase. And, on average, a reactive repair is 1.5 times the cost of preventative maintenance work (Diego Galar, Maintenance Costs and Life Cycle Cost Analysis, 2017.). Even in the short term, as we navigate the challenges presented by the coronavirus, it’s critical to maintain the state of your HVAC units across your portfolio.
According to ASHRAE, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, proactively servicing HVAC units is a decisive step in controlling the spread of the coronavirus. When properly maintenanced, HVAC units perform a number of important functions, including:
Filter changes are critical to accomplishing all of the above. And it’s also worth noting that dirty air is the leading cause of compressor failures, one of the costliest of HVAC maintenance scenarios.
By contrast, new filters are inexpensive, easy to replace, and require minimal hardware in most cases—so facilities managers can perform these changes themselves, if HVAC units are easily accessible. Always seek out the services of an expert technician whenever rooftop units are involved.
Keeping up your HVAC units is essential to controlling costs and maintaining healthy environments. This is especially true as we navigate the challenges posed by the coronavirus. Stay connected with SMS Assist for more important information.
SMS Assist is on a mission to transform the facilities maintenance industry by delivering unprecedented transparency and control. More than 186,000 commercial properties—like retail stores, banks, restaurants, and more—and residential rental properties leverage our cloud-based platform to connect to more than 20,000 service providers and our operations teams that are available every second of every day. It’s a new approach for an industry in need of a better solution.