How Often Should You Perform Preventative Maintenance?

Your building’s HVAC system may run smoothly, but that doesn’t mean everything is healthy on the inside. Many of the problems faced by A/C units take some time to materialize. That is why it is a good idea to have your building HVAC system inspected annually with preventative maintenance. Identifying issues early, before they build, can save you time and money.

The Problems Can Creep Up

Over time, as your HVAC system continues supplying your building with clean air, it accumulates large amounts of dirt and dust in many key areas. This accumulation negatively affects the system’s efficiency, which if left unchecked can reduce the supply of clean air, increase your electricity bill, and decrease the operational life of the system.

On a practical, monetary level, inspections pay for themselves by addressing these problems and ensuring your system performs at its best. On the other hand, replacing broken HVAC systems can cost several thousand dollars and cause a major inconvenience.

Conducting Regular Inspections

To head off the aforementioned types of problems before they develop, it is essential that you conduct regular inspections for your HVAC system. A checkup once a year can be enough for most systems. This annual checkup should comprise of the following steps:

1. Have a visual examination of the entire system done by a professional technician. This examination may seem pointless, but merely observing the system can yield important information about the parts of the AC that need attention, revealing such simple problems as parts of the system’s copper wire rubbing together.
2. Thorough cleaning of the parts of the system that accumulate dirt. The indoor and outdoor coils, condensate pump, and other parts of the system should be cleaned thoroughly.
3. The parts of the system that have become worn should be replaced or repaired.
4. Document and compare temperature and pressure readings to ensure the proper refrigerant level for the cooling system.
5. Inspect the fan motors, capacitors and its blades for proper amperage and no misbalance. Motors and capacitors are normal wear parts and must be monitored. Unbalanced blades cause premature bearing failure.

Aside from the yearly inspection, you should change the AC‘s filters every 1 to 3 months to make sure they can handle the quantity of air that passes through them every day without getting clogged. This check may vary depending on how often someone inspects the building HVAC system.

Calling in the Experts

Once the inspection has yielded definite results about the state of your HVAC system, you can decide whether you need to bring in experts for maintenance and repair work. If it seems that the system can no longer function to its best capacity without making major changes to its internal components, don’t try to fix the problem yourself.

There are dozens of small considerations that need to be evaluated while working on the system to ensure no additional damage is done. Thus, an annual inspection of the building HVAC system may determine how long you can enjoy the benefits of your system, as well as extend the overall life of the machine.

Don’t wait until an emergency forces you to call an HVAC service. Contact Ball Building Services today for your annual HVAC system inspection and preventative maintenance. You’ll have peace of mind knowing that you’ll stay cool all summer long!