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— By Lisa Raffin
It’s often an easy mistake for facilities professionals to delay a comprehensive assessment
of HVAC systems across a building portfolio. Preventive maintenance can repair simple HVAC
system glitches, but it often is just a bandage that hides more serious and inevitable
problems.
Without a thorough assessment, managers can lose sight of when a system is reaching the end
of its useful life. Worse yet, a major breakdown can result in HVAC system failure affecting
occupant productivity and requiring costly emergency repairs. A fundamental change in HVAC
systems capital reinvestment strategies is critical to providing a productive work
environment.
The combination of physical assessments, the latest in Web technology and financial analysis
can create a process that organizations can use to manage their HVAC systems for large
building portfolios. This process also gives maintenance and engineering managers insight
into the condition of an existing HVAC system, enabling them to more accurately budget for
maintenance and renewal projects.
This type of proactive approach also enables managers to define deferred maintenance and
forecast long-term capital renewal requirements. But failure to adopt a comprehensive
approach can lead organizations to defer critical maintenance, resulting in poor systems
performance and, inevitably, emergency repairs and unscheduled expenditures.
Objective assessment
The key steps in a proactive HVAC management program include:
gathering baseline data, such as system history, physical assessments and documented
deficiencies
benchmarking with a comparative measure, such as a systems conditions index
performing financial modeling to enable capital planning based on renewal projections for
systems, building components, etc.
project planning, including procurement strategies and scheduling.
An HVAC assessment provides a better understanding of the systems’ conditions. Information
from the assessment enables managers to accurately budget for long-term repairs and
replacement.
Trained in-house HVAC maintenance staff can perform the assessment, or managers can elect to
have a third-party surveyor complete an HVAC inspection. A third-party vendor who is not
contracted for replacement or maintenance of the HVAC equipment can provide a more objective
assessment of system needs.
A comprehensive HVAC assessment begins with reviewing the systems’ deferred maintenance
issues, interviewing the maintenance staff, conducting visual inspections of systems, and
reviewing available building drawings, maintenance records and engineering studies.
The inspection typically begins with the building’s heating and cooling equipment and works
outward through the distribution equipment, air-handling units, piping and ductwork to
terminal devices and, finally, temperature-control systems.
Surveyors should check systems for issues such as code compliance, proper mechanical
ventilation of spaces, adequate indoor air quality and sufficient introduction of outside air
through air- handling systems.
The surveyor also should look for possible improvements in the system performance by
identifying energy-efficiency opportunities, such as a boiler replacement or burner
conversion. Inspectors determine deferred maintenance issues and document any deficiencies,
using photos to supplement the record.
To ensure optimum long-term management and care of the HVAC systems, software programs that
store information in relational database structures enable managers to maintain and plan for
the replacement of systems components.
A Web-enabled capital planning and management solution can provide a common technology
platform for data entry, storage, analysis and reporting of facilities and HVAC information.
Using such a system, managers can remotely access, review and update HVAC conditions
throughout the building portfolio.
Such a technology solution also enables easier prioritization and a more efficient method to
plan and budget multiple HVAC repair or renewal projects.
For example, managers can aggregate capital projects based on organizational needs. These
projects can be exported to project scheduling or maintenance management software to optimize
project management and create work orders.
Systems condition index
VFA developed a systems condition index (SCI) as a benchmark to enable an objective
comparison of HVAC systems. The SCI follows the same rules as the facility condition index
(FCI) adopted by national organizations for comparing buildings’ conditions to each other and
across time. The FCI provides for the measurement of buildings’ relative conditions.
Similarly, the SCI is calculated as an index of costs that are required to repair systems
over the systems’ replacement value. The higher the index, the poorer the system condition.
If HVAC systems are viewed as individual assets and assigned replacement values, then it is
beneficial to compare what it would cost to correct any deficiencies found with that of the
system’s value.
Based on the SCI, organizations can set targets for improved conditions — for example, to
reduce the SCI to an acceptable level and to have a benchmark to measure progress or failure.
Many maintenance providers with fixed-time contracts would like to quantitatively prove that
their maintenance procedures provide both a cost savings to the owner and improved facilities
conditions. Using the SCI, maintenance providers can document HVAC system conditions at the
beginning of the contract and provide an updated assessment for contract renewal.
Other factors beyond the SCI also must be considered during the planning process. Managers
must weigh the costs associated with long-term maintenance of an older HVAC system, compared
to the annualized cost of installing a new system.
They also must consider long-term business objectives, including how long the business will
operate in that location, what types of programs will be in that space and whether the
equipment will best serve that space in the future.
Component renewal projections
Different HVAC systems and components have different life cycles — typically 10–40 years.
Knowing the expected life cycles of HVAC equipment and how many years remain in the cycle is
another important factor in the decision-making process. Through the use of industry-
standard life-cycle guides, managers can anticipate capital replacements for major equipment
outlays, such as boilers, chillers and cooling towers. Using software that calculates
component renewal projections, managers can track anticipated future needs, in addition to
managing the current plant status.
Strategic management
These projections enable managers to plan HVAC capital expenditures for years to come. The
assessment also can help managers make recommendations on maintaining the system beyond its
expected life cycle.
A proactive HVAC approach provides a vehicle for understanding the scope of the problems at
hand and for building a foundation of realistic, defendable costs and assumptions when
creating a long-term business plan for optimized HVAC performance and capital reinvestment.
Maintenance and engineering managers who engage in building-wide strategic management
practices will be much better prepared to save costly operations and maintenance dollars, not
only for HVAC systems but for the organization’s entire asset portfolio.
Lisa Raffin is a project director with VFA in Boston, where she is responsible for all
aspects of condition assessments, subsequent analyses, software installations and software
training. Her background includes performing facility assessments focusing on mechanical
systems and controls. She has completed projects for the New Jersey Department of Education,
the Clark Country School District in Las Vegas, Boeing/Rocketdyne Corp. in Canoga Park,
Calif., and the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary in Boston.
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