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Unfortunately, budget constraints have impacted heavily on maintenance departments. That's a major contributor to today's $4billion deferred maintenance shortfall. However, according to The Educational Facilities Laboratory, "Labor productivity can be doubled by instituting a program of planned preventive maintenance, with scheduled repair or replacement of defective parts." What that means is that, it is easier, and less expensive, to prevent disasters, than it is to fix them after they occur. The New York Public School system recently predicted that it costs them as much as $620 for every $1 of deferred maintenance!
 In the above picture, we find a plugged outside air intake screen on a unit ventilator. Preventative maintenance routines should include cleaning outside air intake screens every five years.
Okay, so how do you get from where you are, to a point of higher indoor air quality, greater comfort and less energy cost? We'd suggest you look for a service company that promotes the idea of working together with your in-house personnel to help: I. Fix what's broken II. Clean what's dirty III. Make changes in operations IV. Make temperature control system revisions V. Install new technology hardware VI. Institute a good preventive maintenance program Remember, approximately 75% of maintaining a proper HVAC system, is simply keeping things clean, dry and lubricated. Most school and commercial office managers believe the in-house personnel should be in charge of those tasks. We agree. We even believe that, by doubling their productivity, with a planned preventive maintenance program and proper hands-on training, in-house personnel can do 80% to 95% of what it takes to maintain a proper hvac system. Outside contractors should only be needed to help boost the rate of maintenance recovery and provide the highly technical services required of such items as temperature controls, water treatment, fire alarm systems, boiler burners, elevators, etc. |
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Preventative Maintenance |