Air conditioning service and maintenance

 

Air conditioning service consists of tests, checks and calibration of air conditioning systems to confirm its correct and efficient operation. Only trained and certified service engineers may service air conditioning systems, due to presence of harmful fluorinated gases (F-Gases).

Air conditioning

Air conditioning is also referred to as, air con or by using the acronym AC. Air conditioning is conditioning the air in an indoor environment for either the comfort of the occupants or for a business process. Business processes can include but aren’t limited to: computer and comms room cooling; data centre cooling; precise clean room and laboratory temperatures; museum and gallery humidity or food storage environments. While comfort air conditioning is mainly used in the office, retail or any environment that requires additional heating, cooling or ventilation. Air conditioning results in more accurate local temperature control by heating, cooling or ventilating an area.

Air conditioning system

An air conditioning system maybe formed by one or numerous individual air conditioning units located throughout a building or complex. Air conditioning is part of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system.

For more: Ventilation and conditioning

Air conditioning service and maintenance

Air conditioning servicing is carried out in accordance with following requirements:

• Fluorinated gas (F-Gas) regulations set out by the European Union.
• The original equipment manufacturer (OEM) specification i.e. the manufacturer’s recommendations.
• Your own business specific requirements.
• The advice from your maintenance provider.
• Current health and safety regulations.

In general, servicing should take place at least twice per year in a commercial building. While it should take place four times per year where the air conditioning system is essential to supporting business critical systems, particularly where it operates 24/7 and there is no standby or back-up unit. The process of servicing an air conditioning system is known as planned preventative maintenance (PPM).

PPM is a risk averse measure, ensuring uptime of operation-critical systems.

Air conditioning PPM

PPM service checks include: verification of efficient operation, health and safety inspections, examination of critical components, appropriate discharge inspection, inspection of electrical connections and analysis of operation parameters, such as, temperatures, pressures, noises and vibrations.

PPM seeks to service air conditioning as a part of the overall HVAC system. This ensures that air conditioning systems are acting in harmony and not competing against heating and ventilation systems, which can sometimes occur.

Air conditioning servicing can take place on a variety of different units, such as: spilt units; cassette units and in chiller systems. Depending on the system, servicing will also have to take place on parts within the system, such as: compressors, condensers, expansion valves and evaporators, as appropriate.