Warmer Weather is Coming: Can Your HVAC Assets Handle the Heat?
Spring and summer will be here in the blink of an eye, and while we all welcome warmer temperatures, that comfort translates into higher energy and maintenance costs for your organization. While the U.S. saw warmer temperatures this past winter season, the colder months still put significant demands on your HVAC assets. Now, with 2024 predicted to be one of the hottest years on record, those demands could be even stronger.
As a facilities leader, you know that an HVAC preventive maintenance program is essential to avoid unplanned expenses and situations. And yet, managing such a program and keeping it moving is no simple feat — especially if it’s an in-house responsibility. Daily challenges and circumstances consume time and resources, leaving little of either available for proactive strategy. This is further compounded if you have numerous locations pulling on you and your team.
While we could explore the advantages of an HVAC preventive maintenance program in-depth, you’re likely already aware of the fundamental benefits. Instead, let’s take a higher perspective and explore how such a program — when executed and managed by a responsible, proactive consolidating partner — can go even further.
Adjacent Benefits of an HVAC Preventive Maintenance Program
When you think of an HVAC preventive maintenance program, what comes to mind likely includes evaluating such assets on a scheduled basis to assess the condition and performance of various components, refrigerants, connections, cleanliness, and so on. This work would absolutely be performed, delivering value by prolonging the life and maximizing the performance of those assets.
These aren’t the only opportunities for a proactive maintenance program to deliver value, however. Here are a few other ways that working with a facility asset maintenance aggregator extends that value.
- Location-Specific Planning — Local climate influences the demand on HVAC systems and thus the level of wear and tear on them. An aggregator will factor this into their evaluation of those assets, the frequency of service, and any long-term recommendations for maintaining those assets. Another example is cottonwood, which can clog up condenser coils and impact cooling capacity.
- Energy Management — While the primary focus of an HVAC preventive maintenance program is on the assets themselves, understanding the energy demands of those assets can reveal important information and help to prioritize maintenance activities. For example, if you don’t already have a cloud-based EMS in place, implementing one gives you insight into HVAC performance across all of your locations and down to the asset level. This helps you prioritize maintenance while also giving you greater control over your overall energy expenses.
- Strategic Facility Budget Planning — Have you ever set your facility management budget only for it to be completely thrown off by a large capital expense that you didn’t see coming? With an aggregator supporting you, insights gained from the program can be used to help inform annual budget planning and strategy. A great example is clearly identifying when HVAC systems — typically a CapEx expense — should be proactively replaced due to age or condition rather than maintaining them with the risk of asset failure always looming.
- Historical Asset Data Collection — Do you have a complete list of all HVAC assets across all locations? Does that data specify model numbers, serial numbers, asset age, performance, and more? Having all of this information consolidated in a single asset list that’s accessible at all times enables a greater understanding of where preventive maintenance is most needed. This helps to reduce overall program costs and ensures your resources are spent in the right place, at the right time.
- Vendor Consolidation — Last but certainly not least, think about the demands on you and your team simply from managing multiple vendors across a variety of disciplines and locations. There’s a significant inherent risk in this, to say nothing of the administrative burden. With an aggregator, those relationships, communications, and workflows are managed on your behalf — and from a network of vendors that have proven themselves year after year. This enables you and your team to dedicate more time and resources to pursuing strategic initiatives and other goals vs. chasing down documents and handling vendor communications.
This is Just the Beginning — Realize More Benefits with the Right Partner Today
If your current HVAC preventive maintenance program is consuming more energy and resources than it should, or if you’re not moving the needle to reduce costs and maximize asset performance, it may be time to consider a facility management aggregator.
At CLS Facility Services, we help organizations nationwide across a variety of industries consolidate, streamline, and improve their facility asset maintenance needs — we can do the same for you. With our experienced and tenured team, easy-to-access online asset management portal, proven network of commercial service vendors, and relentless commitment to helping you move the needle, we’re the partner you need to take your HVAC preventive maintenance program to the next level.