Preventive Maintenance in HVAC Systems

Preventive Maintenance in HVAC Systems

From the Industrial Revolution to the present day, there has been a constant evolution, linked to the technical-economic progress in different aspects of the industry. One of them is the way in which maintenance is given.

Over the years, the different types of preventive maintenance went from a vision in which it was just a matter of “keeping an eye” on the equipment, to a paradigm focused on having the most advanced software and methodologies.

These evolutions respond to the understanding and visualization of the benefits of this preventive practice. Even within this same evolution and with the rise of the disposable culture, for a while, many industries took the approach of not investing in preventive maintenance in order to invest in new equipment. This thought of not investing in this service is still in force.

Put very simply, preventive maintenance deals with the conservation of equipment and facilities and is performed in advance in order to prevent the occurrence of equipment failures and avoid unscheduled shutdowns.

In very general terms, it consists of the execution of adjustments, cleaning, lubrication, calibration, replacement of worn parts, etc. It is carried out periodically and is performed by the plant operator. It is carried out periodically and its main objective is to detect failures that may lead to an equipment malfunction in order to avoid high repair costs.

Reducing the likelihood of unplanned shutdowns also allows for longer equipment life, and greater safety, and health. In a pandemic context by covid-19, this is a very important point, especially in equipment and air conditioning systems, as these can “help” the particles (virus) to travel from one side to another, which can facilitate the spread of the same.

To perform this type of maintenance, it is suggested to follow the manufacturer’s recommendations, either preventive maintenance based on time, hours of operation, or predictive maintenance, according to various analyses that can detect a certain level of failures.

Disregarding this practice causes an increase in costs and premature wear of the installation in general. One of the aspects of preventive maintenance is predictive. This type of service predicts future equipment failures and is performed by means of different analyses.

Some predictive studies for HVAC equipment are:

  • Oil analysis.
  • Vibration analysis.
  • Power quality analysis.
  • Thermography.
  • Water physicochemical analysis.
  • Insulation resistance tests

Currently, there is air conditioning equipment, such as chillers, that have remote monitoring systems that allow visualizing the behavior of the equipment 24/7. Monitoring also helps to identify some failures and to intervene in an efficient and timely manner, allowing to save diagnosis and intervention times in the equipment.

WHY SHOULD WE PERFORM PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE?

Preventive maintenance is something that “is not seen”, but when it is missing, it is perceived in the operating conditions because a number of problems appear. Speaking of HVAC equipment, there are different “risks” in not performing maintenance. Are you looking for a great HVAC business? You may visit their page for further info.

When equipment fails and is required to bring it online, certain types of faults are identified in their physical condition, either by leaks, oxidation of some parts, electrical faults by false, and so on. Once this happens, it may happen that there are no spare parts on hand, so the operation is adequate at the moment of start-up. Consequently, the equipment will be out of operation longer than planned.

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