Keep It Running: 7 Essential Types of HVAC Maintenance

Nobody likes oven-like, stuffy and smelly kitchen, especially when you spend most of your time in the kitchen. Ventilation in the kitchen is often overlooked by the majority of kitchen users, but the truth is that the ventilation is just as important as the cleanliness.

It is important to keep in mind that a good ventilation system will improve the performance as well as the health of kitchen staffs. A well-ventilated kitchen could greatly help in controlling kitchen temperature and air quality.

The following are some reasons for equipping the kitchen with a proper ventilation system:

Control kitchen temperature and enhance air quality

The kitchen can get hot and grimy easily because cooking and preparing food generates heat, smoke, grease and odours. Installing a functional ventilation system is the easiest way to control kitchen temperature and improve the air quality. It works by expelling the hot air from your kitchen and creating a constant circulation of air within your kitchen. The elimination of impurities such as heat, smoke and fumes can greatly improve air quality for a pleasant and more comfortable kitchen environment.

Reduce energy loss

Without proper ventilation system in your kitchen, having fans alone might be ineffective in removing hot and contaminated air out from the kitchen. No matter how fast the fan blades spin, air impurities will remain stagnant, not to mention that the resulting energy consumption would be just as high. With some sort of ventilation system, cool air would be removed together with the smoke and hot air, causing the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system to regenerate cool air to maintain optimal temperature. Thus, a proper ventilation system can help reduce energy loss and at the same time effectively improve air circulation of the entire kitchen.

Eliminate odours

Insufficient kitchen ventilation is the main culprit for pesky cooking smells. Unfortunately, no matter how little or heavily you cook, awful cooking odours will still linger around your kitchen. Therefore, a kitchen ventilation system can help you combat such smells. It filters the air from the kitchen and ensures regular air flow into the kitchen. An optimal air flow rate helps to prevent unpleasant odours from taking over your house or restaurant. Hence, all types of kitchen should have a ventilation system to prevent pungent cooking smells.

Avoid contamination of exhaust systems

Regular maintenance of kitchen ventilation system is a big must. The ducts, hoods and fans of the ventilation systems can be easily contaminated by the smoke, steam and grease residue that results from cooking. If you leave the exhaust system unclean, it can lead to unwanted damage. So, the exhaust system must be inspected regularly and you should always keep the system clean at all times. Besides, a well-designed kitchen ventilation that features a filtration membrane can effectively help to reduce the amount of residues trapped on the exhaust system.

In short, having proper kitchen ventilation can greatly help in controlling the temperature and air quality, reducing energy loss, eliminating odours and avoiding contamination.

Commercial buildings account for more than 35 percent of the total energy consumption. In most of those structures, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems consume more than 30 percent of the total energy use.

Building owners and facility managers are challenged with getting financial returns from their investments while providing a building that is energy efficient.

As HVAC systems have become complex, non-linear and dynamic, facility managers are increasingly using building management systems to collect data about the performance of the building, as well as energy consumption by individual equipment such as HVAC systems.

Below, SenseWare offers five ways visibility into such data can help drive maximum HVAC efficiency:

1. Comfort of indoor environment 

The importance of an HVAC system in commercial and residential buildings cannot be overemphasized.

The fact remains that fresh air is good for the body, and in commercial buildings, it helps improve productivity. A good ventilation system helps to reduce the number of pollutants, bacteria and odor in a facility.

Data analytics of HVAC systems helps in regulating the temperature of a building and lowering humidity by ensuring that moisture in a building is kept under control. Good ventilation systems remove breeding grounds for dust mites, which contribute to causing eczema.

The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

Engineers (ASHRAE) conducted research that led to Standard 55: Thermal

Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy. Standard 55 describes how

to assess comfort from specific measurements and predict when most people

will be comfortable.

Data analytics of the HVAC system provides real-time data that helps in maintaining this standard and in preventing any setbacks.

2. Energy efficiency

Operating a HVAC system at optimum efficiency is a challenging endeavor. The number of set points, levels and feedbacks of boilers, chillers, pumps, fans, air delivery components and more can cause costly inefficiencies. Add to that the fact that weather variables affect the heat transfers in a building and increase loads on the HVAC.

Data analytics will provide visibility into your HVAC system with sufficient accuracy that will help you take corrective action and reduce the energy demands and peak load distribution of your HVAC systems.

Facilities Net states that HVAC system maintenance in commercial buildings is responsible for saving more than 40 percent of energy, therefore it is essential to utilize data analytics in understanding the effects of malfunctioning HVAC systems on energy use, energy consumption and energy demand.

3. Improve indoor air quality

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), poor indoor air quality is among the top factors of environmental risk. Pollutants in the air can aggravate allergies and asthma in some people and cause dizziness and headaches in others.

Air quality depends on various factors like people entering the facility, use of other equipment and presence of electronics. With the proliferation of cheap sensors, air quality data is now being accurately measured.

This visibility into the data can help adjust your HVAC system to improve the air quality. You can develop a maintenance plan that includes:

• Inspection, serving, and cleaning
• Replacement of parts
• Documentation of procedures
• Calibration of components control system

4. Preventive maintenance

HVAC systems often operate at suboptimal levels at least 40 percent of the time in buildings. This is due to the complexity of the buildings, as well as many moving parts like fans, pumps, air-conditioners, ventilators and dampeners.

Data analytics uncovers the following problems of your HVAC system:

• Additional runtime
• Poor control settings and programming errors
• Stuck dampers causing excess outside air intake
• Valve leakage leading to uncontrolled supply-air temperatures
• Outright equipment failure

5. Actionable insights

Data analytics provide essential insights to help with monitoring, controlling and maintaining your HVAC systems. In the absence of this type of information, facility managers physically perform manual audits that are inefficient and time-consuming.

With the advent of IoT, more sensors are being used in buildings for various equipment. The data analytics out of this ocean of data can help determine the best course of action to take to maximize HVAC efficiency.

You can also analyze the information in various ways to better understand the opportunities it presents. For example, you can look at the normalized data for your building type, square footage, schedule and climate.

You can break down the data to better understand energy consumption based on building occupancy and time, thereby identifying peak demand reduction opportunities.