3 Ways to Strengthen HVAC Facilities Management

Increased Attention on the Impact of Facilities Management Means You Need to Be Focused on Minimizing Your Impact

The pressure is on for facility managers and other operational and financial leaders to give greater attention to the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects of their facilities. While identifying ways to make progress in this area has often been complex and unclear, one immediate area that facility managers can influence is the energy consumption of their facilities and the many assets operating in them. HVAC facilities management in particular is one segment where leaders can take a proactive approach.

Here, we’ll explore a few recommendations that your organization — whether you’re a retailer, medical services provider, office space, restaurant brand, or any service provider — can make that will put you in a stronger position to reduce your impact — and costs.

1. Consolidate your assets into a list.

How does building a list of your HVAC/R assets help you reduce costs? While the list itself won’t help you cut costs, it’s what you can do with that list that will help. Right now, and depending on how many locations you have, there are hundreds or even thousands of HVAC/R assets throughout your facilities. Thinking about them, would you say you know:

Which specific assets are aging or are approaching obsolescence?
Which assets are beginning to need frequent maintenance and repair?
The concentration of certain brands or models?
Which assets have had the most costs tied to them over a period of time?

Building a detailed list of all HVAC/R assets at your locations will provide you with this level of insight into your inventory and how it’s currently performing. But above all, it will show you where your greatest risks — and opportunities — are so you can make the best decisions about maintenance and replacement. In the long run, having this list will help you avoid costly issues like closures or lost sales due to temperature issues, spoilage, etc.

2. Implement a preventive maintenance program.

If you want to avoid the costly issues just described (and many others), getting proactive in your HVAC facilities management program is a must. Even a smaller footprint such as 50 stores (as opposed to 500 or 5,000) can still financially benefit from a preventive maintenance program. Avoiding unexpected costs such as heating and cooling system replacements or having to rely on temporary HVAC systems is well worth the investment in preventive maintenance.

Preventive maintenance shouldn’t be a one-time or infrequent effort, either. A consistent program should be developed and put in place to ensure all HVAC/R systems are working and in good condition. Cleanliness, connections, pressures, supply lines, components, and countless other details are all considered and evaluated in a preventive maintenance visit, ensuring that nothing goes unchecked and you avoid the far more costly issues that come with not doing preventive maintenance.

3. Get proactive with asset replacement.

While you undoubtedly don’t want to invest thousands into brand-new commercial HVAC/R systems, consider the alternative that comes with having an HVAC/R system fail. The average retail store brings in slightly more than $31,000 per month, or about $1,000 per day. Imagine if one store’s HVAC system went out completely, necessitating a replacement.

The average commercial HVAC system cost varies based on a number of stats, but let’s put it at $10,000. With today’s lead times, it’s unlikely that you’ll have a full system delivered and ready to be installed quickly. So you’re losing $1,000 per day due to the closure or having to pay much higher energy costs to use a temporary system. Wouldn’t it have been better to invest in the new system early on to avoid the situation entirely?

Working with the right HVAC facilities management partner, you can more strategically plan for these costs — using the consolidated asset list from #1 — and pay for them from CapEx funds as opposed to OpEx funds.

Work with CLS and Get Strategic with Your HVAC Facilities Management Program

As a leading facilities management company serving all of the U.S. and Canada, CLS Facility Services is uniquely suited to help you develop and implement a proactive HVAC preventive maintenance program that reduces your cost, financial liability, and ultimate impact on the world. We’ll work with you to: