by Ali Kriscenski
Commercial properties require high levels of attention to ensure that occupants and business operations are served efficiently. Maintenance contracts can help facility managers keep buildings and systems running well without disruption. Among these, HVAC maintenance contracts can provide assurance that thermal comfort and equipment are consistently optimized. Here’s a look at how this management strategy can benefit your operational goals.
Benefits of HVAC Maintenance Contracts
Enlisting an HVAC team to service a maintenance contract can create system efficiency, alleviate administrative burdens, and yield energy cost savings. When you have an established contract, the benefits include operational consistency, equipment longevity, and ongoing cost savings.
Prevent Equipment Failure
With regular maintenance, your HVAC equipment will be inspected and repaired on schedule allowing you to identify and remedy potential failures before they incur costly repairs. This attention allows technicians to survey equipment and devices, perform diagnostic testing, and make any needed adjustments to improve performance. These small, consistent measures help you stay ahead of looming equipment failures and prevent major problems.
Limit Operational Disruptions
When HVAC systems run inefficiently, they can create fluctuations in temperature and humidity that can impact thermal comfort. These variations can impact employee attendance, productivity, and health, and in some facilities, cause disruptions to processes or affect inventory with regulated temperature and humidity requirements.
Provide Pricing Advantages
An HVAC maintenance service contract establishes your facility as a priority customer at service prices set by the contract. This ensures that market variables don’t create additional labor costs for preventative HVAC maintenance.
Priority Service & Equipment Orders
In addition to receiving pricing advantages, established customers can benefit from priority service response and equipment orders. Customers with maintenance contracts have an advantage over new or one-time customers during times of urgency, such as equipment failures or widespread disruptions that increase demand on HVAC systems. In these instances, maintenance contracts receive priority for both service and equipment orders
Dedicated Service Professionals
One of the added benefits of an HVAC maintenance contract is the engagement of a dedicated service team. These experts will become familiar with your HVAC systems, building and facility layouts, maintenance schedules, and operational goals. This expertise will create consistency in system inspections, repairs, and upgrades and facilitate budgeting timelines. It will also enable efficiency in maintenance calls with technicians who will consider operational requirements.
Advantages for Multi-Site Facilities
With a maintenance contract in place, your facility benefits from a dedicated team of service professionals and also the support services behind them. As an established customer, your HVAC maintenance schedule is managed centrally. From this vantage, the support service team can create an overall maintenance plan for each location that accommodates the schedules of your facility managers and other operational requirements.
This customer service relationship includes ensuring that your maintenance needs are met and that the service is valuable. This includes finding cost-effective solutions, lowering administrative burdens, and helping to extend the life of your HVAC equipment and devices. For multi-site facilities, these benefits have a cumulative effect that can add up to significant energy savings.
Contract Considerations
When setting up an HVAC maintenance contract, there are a few options to consider. These agreements can be created as comprehensive contracts to include labor, parts, preventative maintenance, and emergency repair services. Another option would be to cover labor only, to cover the expertise needed for maintenance, repairs, and emergencies, but not for equipment or parts. You could also consider a contract for preventative maintenance exclusively, which may be sufficient for your facility’s requirements.
The service experts at Therma can help you navigate the HVAC maintenance contract options, and find the most effective solution for your building or facility. Contact Therma today to learn more >>
AUTHOR BIO
Ali Kriscenski was trained in high-performance building design at Boston Architectural College. She has worked with leading architecture and construction firms in NYC and New England and served on the executive team at the Forest Stewardship Council International. She was the managing editor at Inhabitat and has worked pro bono for the Green Building Institute, ISEAL Alliance, and Habitat for Humanity.
Sources
Facilities.Net – HVAC Trends: What Facility Managers Should Know
Facilities Management Advisor – Trends in Healthy Buildings
Bird & Bird – Energy Outlook 2023
