Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems requires regular maintenance to function efficiently just like any other home appliance. HVAC maintenance is essential to prevent the need for major repairs or entire replacements, which can be very expensive. Most HVAC companies suggest tune-ups twice a year, in the fall before you turn your heat on and in the spring before you turn your air conditioning on. During these sessions, the technician will go through a checklist of parts that need to be inspected and cleaned and will recommend any repairs that need to be done to prevent a breakdown.
What is HVAC maintenance?
A good maintenance plan includes a full inspection of your HVAC system. This way, we can ensure your AC system is in optimum condition when you need it most.
What are the benefits of routine HVAC system maintenance?
HVAC maintenance will help you to keep your equipment running smoothly and efficiently. Regular maintenance provides technicians the opportunity to spot potential issues. Having HVAC systems undergo regular maintenance will bring many benefits such as:
Fewer repair bills
All HVAC systems, even the most reliable ones, will occasionally have problems. Regular maintenance, however, means fewer repair problems because any issues will be spot earlier. It makes much more sense to replace parts before they cause severe problems and costly repairs.
Maximizing the system’s lifespan
As most homeowners, purchasing a brand new HVAC system is something you would like to postpone as long as possible. Routine maintenance can prolong your system’s lifespan, lengthen the time between replacements and will keep it in better conditions for longer.
Increasing safety
A routine checkup can reveal safety issues that could endanger facilities and people that live or work on them. If you have an electrically powered system, a maintenance check can help technicians to spot short circuits that could otherwise cause a fire.
All gas or oil burning furnaces put off carbon dioxide, no matter how efficient they are. This odorless gas is poisonous and can invade your living space if it is not ventilated. During a regular maintenance tune up, technicians will check for proper gas venting and make sure that it is burning properly.
Spotting small problems before they become major
Many HVAC issues exhibit warning signs that only a trained and experienced professional can detect. A HVAC techician can perform a series of troubleshooting steps to identify minor hitches before they turn into complicated and expensive repairing problems.
HVAC maintenance guide
There are few things you can do to ensure your HVAC system is working properly. If you notice any particular problem, you should contact a technician straight away. However, there are some tips that will help you to keep your HVAC system in good conditions.
Filters maintenance
Filters should be changed every 30 to 90 days. We recommend checking your air filters once per month, and change them out before they become visibly dirty. A clean filter greatly enhances the efficiency of your HVAC unit. Dirty filters can make your equipment work much harder to keep the desired temperature, therefore, not changing filter often can be more expensive on the long run.
Check refrigerant lines monthly
Refrigerant lines that come from your HVAC unit into your home are what ensure you have the heating or the cooling you need. If those lines are worn, the system develop leaks or become detached. As a consequence of that, you will not get the comfortable temperatures that you are looking for. Even in the winter, refrigerant lines should be checked at least once a month.
In summer, turn off water supplied to your furnace’s humidifier
The humidifier should be turned off during the summer. When the weather starts to cool again, in late summer or early fall, and you should start thinking about turning on the heat, change the filter and set your humidistat to around 40 percent humidity. Then, you should turn on the water supply.
Check your home’s carbon monoxide detector
It’s a good idea to replace the batteries in your carbon monoxide detector at the same time you replace the batteries in your home’s smoke alarm. Often your carbon monoxide detector and your fire alarm are the same unit, so you only need to replace one set of batteries every six months.
Innocations in the HVAC industry
Many businesses within the HVAC industry are beginning to automate their sales and service processes, allowing them to reduce costs and keeping competitive prices. New technologies, such smartphone apps, can be of great help to control lighting, ventilation, and other processes with one control point.
Big data can help companies to take responsible and appropriate decisions. Mobile solutions will continue to drive innovation within the HVAC industry as more potential customers looking to meet their needs through the use of tablets, smartphones, or PCs.
As HVAC systems continue to develop innovative, but complex, solutions for buildings, consumers are expected to continue turning toward mobile technologies to set up preventative maintenance and service programs.
Mobile forms can improve your HVAC workflow
For HVAC companies, using mobile forms can improve their workflow substantially because they can improve the data collection and processing processes. Here, we have listed few benefits from using mobile forms:
Real-time data
Whether installing central air or repairing a furnace, timely HVAC communication is essential to any project’s success. Using mobile forms, you get real time data delivered in a simple way. Once data has been submitted, using an app or online platform, it is instantly available to the back office for processing, sharing and analysis. Collected data can be used immediately resulting in improved business agility, fast responsiveness and less time wasted on manual tasks.
Boost productivity and complete jobs faster
You can build your own mobile forms with simple, drag and drop form builder. Mobile solutions speedily collect data from the field and eliminate paperwork. The can also work offline and submit results to the office when reconnected, and send instant PDF reports to the rest of the team.
Improved operational insights
Mobile forms help improving not only data capture, but also the quality of the collected data. Improving data accuracy is essential to produce insights that are more reliable and can help business owners to take informed decisions.
Streamlined workflow
Moving away from a paper based workflow to a mobile solutions eases data processing. By using digital data immediately available in a Cloud platform, the administrative team can find crucial information fast, easily and without the need to ‘transfer’ information from a form into a system. This saves time and removes the need for manual processing.
Collect richer data from your inspections
By using mobile forms, you can add photos, videos, attached documents and signatures to your forms and all that information could help the rest of the team to get a better look at what is happening in the field. You can also add GPS coordinates, view time and date stamps to see when and where jobs were completed.
Accurate data from the field
Mobile HVAC forms allow companies to get real time indicators of the field operations. Now, workers in charge of field maintenance can do it all from their smartphones or tablets, improving productivity, the quality of service and the average performance.
Customizable forms
Mobile HVAC forms can be customized with all the necessary data so the filling of information is easier and appropriate to the task. Online form builders allow you to customize your form to the exact specifications that you want.
Digital records
Using mobile HVAC forms you can set up a digital historic record of maintenance for future references. This way you and your team can easily access to old information that can be useful to sort out recurrent issues.
No more paper
Paper HVAC forms can get lost or damaged so using them can cause more problems instead of bringing solutions, due to the obstacles the physical format produce by slowing down already long maintenance processes. Using digital forms, you avoid the loss of time and money caused by printing and filing a paper form.
Improved efficiency
Digital HVAC forms are great alternatives to the obsolete paper HVAC forms that can solve many common problems created by the use of paper. Mobile forms can help companies to provide more services that are efficient and personalized.
There are many solutions available on the market, but when it comes to your company’s forms, not just any mobile forms solution will do. You need a software that is easy to use, that allow you to save data in the cloud and can contribute to provide a more efficient processing for the company and an improved experience for the client.
With DataScope solution, you can easily move paper-based processes to the cloud and digital platforms and accelerate form-filling process. By using HVAC mobile forms, your organization can expedite forms submission and cut the costs associated with managing paper at the same time.
DataScope is a platform which allows various industries to streamline, organize and evaluate the work of their field staffs thanks to online forms which provide real time indicators 100% adaptable to any field.
