Author: dpadmin

Commercial HVAC Winter Maintenance

Unlike residential comfort, the needs of a commercial establishment vary dramatically. There are many benefits to a commercial HVAC system, and there are many different types available. Before making a decision about which type is right for your building, it’s important to consider the size and type of the space you want to heat or cool.

In summer, commercial HVAC systems can run all day and all night without any issue. During winter, the HVAC system is even more important, because it’s much harder to work outdoors. When the weather gets cold and you’re not able to keep employees or clients comfortable, the energy bill can rise. You don’t want to spend a fortune on repairs if your commercial HVAC system is causing a problem for your business.

For commercial HVAC repair jobs, it’s important to choose an experienced technician. A professional HVAC technician is familiar with the structure of commercial buildings and their unique heating and cooling needs. It’s important to have a functioning heater for winter.

Scheduling yearly inspections are key to your commercial HVAC’s success. This can prevent total failures and costly repairs, especially when the weather demands a functioning system. Working with experienced HVAC technicians is beneficial as they will pass on any tips to the property managers or business owners to help them optimize their system to the fullest.

The Importance of Gas Furnace Maintenance

As the weather cools down, it’s time to get the heaters running. If your building’s heating system relies on a gas furnace, you should be aware of the potential hazards that arise when it is turned back on. Although it is not inherently dangerous to run a gas furnace, there are potential risks. Here is what you need to know about gas furnace safety.

Understanding Potential Hazards

Any appliance that combusts natural gas for operating has the potential of combusting or leaking toxic substances. Carbon monoxide is the toxic byproduct of natural gas combustion. Most people know the dangers of carbon monoxide, as prolonged exposure could result in death. But all of this is preventable with proper maintenance.

How to Keep Your Furnace Safe

The best precaution you can take is to perform annual maintenance right before the system goes live. Professional HVAC technicians will look at the furnace to ensure everything is in working condition, and most importantly, there are no cracks on the surface. Cracks can leak carbon monoxide into the air, so they must be identified before your furnace runs.

While gas furnaces don’t pose a serious threat to a building, there is always a risk of carbon monoxide leaks or fires if a furnace is not regularly inspected each year.

Chiller Installation in Minneapolis, MN

When you require commercial chiller installation for your Minnesota business, you can rely on Corporate Mechanical.

Making the choice to cool your building with commercial chillers gives you unprecedented control over temperature, humidity, and ventilation. But for business owners still deciding whether or not to go with a commercial chilling system, making the commitment can seem daunting. Business owners are typically do-it-themselves types of people—after all, it’s that personal drive that caused them to start their own business venture in the first place. But there are many reasons why hiring professional help to install your commercial chilling system is the smartest, most efficient choice.

Why Choose Us?

Less business downtime. Business owners know that time their building has to be closed in order to allow for the installation equals time that the business can’t be pulling in profits. Having a professional team assess the building, listen to your needs, make their recommendations, and do a rapid, thorough job will maximize the time that your business can stay open. This will lessen the disruption an installation could present.

We will tailor the system to your needs. As a business owner, you know that you are successful when you know the customers’ needs better than they do themselves. That’s why they come to you. In the same way, delegating your commercial chiller installation to a team of experts does two things. Firstly, it gives you the support and knowledge that you need in order to make the chilling system work with your building. Commercial chillers come in a variety of sizes and our chiller installation professionals understand how your building needs to be cooled using one or more units. Secondly, delegating the installation allows you to focus on your business’s true mission: helping the customers who rely on you.

We offer maintenance support. Installing a system is not just about making it work the first time. An chiller installation professionals will help you understand the mechanics of your system, allowing you to maximize the longevity of the machines.

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A New Cooling Tower From SPX Cooling Technologies Is On The Way

The Marley AV line of cooling towers are getting a makeover. The popular single flow, factory assembled cooling towers are going to get a boost in power and some special features in a new redesign announced by SPX Cooling Technologies, Inc. Here is a rundown of what you need to know.

Features

The new features include a new cross flow design that that will come in both single and multi-fan models. Plus it will have a flow rate of 117 to 1541 gpm, and a tonnage range from 122 to 772. Despite this, it will be even more energy efficient. It will be able to handle household air conditioning and refrigeration, but will also be able able to handle lighter industrial loads.

It will come standard with a bearing housing belt drive system. However, also available on some models will be the Marley Geareducer and motor outside airstream options. There are a plethora of other design and usage options, such as stainless steel basins, access doors, sweeper piping, and mechanical access doors as well. These are all features that will make inspecting and maintaining the tower much easier and safer. Along with this, the tower will also have a hot water basin guardrail system and a plenum walkway that’s slip-resistant. Safety and functionality are the calling cards of the redesign.

Also a part of the redesign will be the brand new, Markey Drift Eliminator, patent-pending. These will help the cooling towers get even an even lower drift rate, at .0005% of water flow. That means that the tower will retain water much better than previous models. Customers will also have a choice between quiet and ultra-quiet fan modes as well. The Cooling Technology Institute has fully certified the AV, so you can expect quality. This new product will be available around the world.

SPX Cooling Technologies is a worldwide leader in manufacturing cooling towers and other cooling equipment and accessories. They are committed to providing an exceptional customer experience, from customer service to quality products.They have been innovators in the HVAC industry for more than 100 years.

What New Technology is Changing the HVAC Industry?

We live in a world where we are becoming more connected all the time. We can contact whoever we want from a device we keep in our pocket, and access any information we need using that same device. Our homes are no different. More and more products are coming to the marketplace to help us be connected to, and automate, our home lives like never before. Should HVAC contractors be selling these products along with traditional ones, or leave that to the larger companies and big box stores?

Fringe Items

“Fringe items” is the new buzz term for items that will help connect several aspects of your home. They include locks, sprinkler systems, and lighting systems, for example. For heating and cooling, there are many new options on the scene that contractors can potentially offer to their clients. However, the HVAC industry as a whole has not embraced this new technology in the same way that other industries have. It may be time for contractors to start training both themselves and their staff on new technologies, so they can start seeing the benefits. Once they see the benefits, they will be able to more effectively sell those products and services to their customers and improve their lives.

How it Could Be Successful

It seems that for many contractors, it is all or nothing. They have either embraced home automation, or ignored it completely. The latter group may end up being squeezed out. Selling fringe items means getting to know your clients, and finding out what their needs are. The best thing about new options and technologies is that there is more of an ability to customize, so there’s no reason a client canot get what they want. HVAC contractors are in a unique position when compared to contractors from other industries who are in the home automation game. They often already have paid memberships, and they visit clients’ homes several times a year in some cases. With that relationship comes trust.

Since the world is getting more connected, there’s no reason that the HVAC industry should not embrace the changes. Making clients’ lives easier and providing them with the service should be the primary goal.

Tips to Save Air Conditioning Energy This Summer

There may be nothing better on a summer’s day than to come in from the hot weather, thirsty and sweaty, to a nice cool building. Air conditioning has become a lifeline for so many in the summer who cannot stand the heat. Unfortunately, your air conditioner uses a lot of energy, and can be quite costly. Here are some tips to keep your energy consumption low this summer.

Seal and Insulate

Make sure your building is well insulated, and seal any spots where air from the outside can get in. If hot air is coming in, then your HVAC system will have to work harder to cool down the building, which will cost you money. Your entire building should be well insulated as well, to keep the heat out and the cool in.

Use a Fan and Shades

Yes, a traditional fan can save energy. A standing fan or a ceiling fan can help circulate the cool air to better cover every spot in the building. On days that are not too hot, you can turn off your AC and use fans to be cooled by their breeze. Shading your windows will also help prevent your building from getting heated up by sunlight like your car does on a hot day.

Use a Programmable Thermostat

A programmable thermostat can be set to only run the air conditioning at certain times of day when it is most needed, or to maintain a certain temperature. You can set it to a slightly higher temperature than what you originally want, as well. Instead of setting it low to get an immediate blast of cold air, set it a bit higher. You’ll cool more slowly, but you will not work your AC system as hard.

Use A Swamp Cooler

A swamp cooler evaporates water in the air, so that the area cools. It uses much less energy than a compressed air AC system. The windows should be left open for this method.

Maintain Your Filters

Your filters can get clogged with all sorts of debris, so make sure you change them regularly, especially if you have pets. The less airflow there is because of a clogged filter, the harder your AC unit will work.

Do not let your energy costs get out of control this summer. Save energy with these helpful tips.

Oversized HVAC Systems and Design Temperatures

In recent years, there has been a shift away from oversize HVAC systems that are simply too much for the space they need to heat and cool. This is because more emphasis in building and energy codes is towards energy efficiency. Buildings are required to have more accurate cooling and heating load calculations to prevent the problems associated with oversized systems. These problems can include short cycles and poor dehumidification, among other things. However, sometimes systems are still not sized correctly.

Things Are Heating Up

One of the problems that lead to oversized HVAC systems is that the installer used the incorrect design temperatures when making their load calculation. Here is how that happens. In the winter, heat bleeds from the building to the outside. In the summer, the building absorbs heat. How much heat is gained or lost, and how fast it heats or cools, is dependant on the difference in temperature from the outside to the inside. There is a table that provides the industry standard for the proper design temperatures for each season. However, too many contractors ignore or tweak those recommended temperatures when they are making their calculations.

Temperatures are always in flux, whether inside or outside a building. How much heat a building games or loses is in flux as well, even from hour to hour and day to day. If the goal is to keep the temperature of a building at a constant, such as 72 degrees, then the difference in temperature from outside and inside will be less in the evening and morning during the summer when it is cooler. When the temperature difference goes up, then the cooling load will have to rise as well. In most cases, buildings have air conditioners that are not designed to change the amount of cooling based on the change in temperature. THis would require split heat pumps, which are not common.

Design Temperatures

This is where design temperatures come in. Since most HVAC equipment is fixed capacity, and not variable, the design temperature will help make sure your system is operating at its best. The question is, what do these temperatures represent? In Winter, the 99% temperature refers to the level that the outdoor temperature will be above for 99% of the time. This is based on a 30-year average. This means that in the climate in which the building is located, the temperature will only be below that point for 1 % of the time. For example, in hotter cites, the 99% winter design temperature may be 25 degrees or so.

In the summer, the 1% design temperature is the point that your climate will be above for just 1% of the time. In a hot place, that point could be in the 80’s, for example. In the past, there used to be 97.5  and 2.5% temperatures. Those are no longer used since the current design temperatures have become the new standard.

Contactors and Design Temperatures

In general, contractors do not like having to return to the scene of a job to adjust things if the customer complains about being uncomfortable. This is why they will install oversized systems to make sure there is always enough cooling and heating. They do not know how about the other factors that come into play with the temperature of a building, such as insulation and infiltration. Despite this, if you are having a new system installed, make sure that the contractor uses the correct design temperatures so that you will not only be comfortable, but you can avoid any issues with having an oversized system for the space that you have.

What’s the Difference Between Commercial and Residential HVAC?

Residential and commercial HVACs provide the same purpose for their respective buildings, however, the systems are vastly different from one another. Here are the biggest differences between the two.

Commercial HVAC is Larger

The biggest difference is the size. Residential HVAC systems are much smaller than that of commercial sites. Commercials systems also operate differently, as they have different components, such as compressor, evaporates, condenser fans, and thermostats. Residential units rely on less power to operate, as there are likely less people coming in and out of a residential home.

They Both Have Different Locations

In residential homes, the HVAC system is usually in the backyard or along the side of the house. Commercial units, however, tend to be located in a “swamp cooler” or on a building’s roof. Putting a commercial HVAC system on the roof is a great solution to saving space. This also helps with prevent noise pollution, due to the HVAC system’s ability to generate loud noise.

Commercial HVAC are Much More Complex

Due to the sheer size difference between the two, the structure is much different. Commercial systems require more adaptability, due to each and every business’s unique building structure. They also typically serve many more people than residential ones do. The drainage system is one of the most notable differences. In commercial HVAC systems, multiple pans and pipes are used to ensure the drainage is completely evaporated.

Commercial HVAC Has a Higher Maintenance Cost

The maintenance cost of a commercial HVAC system is much more than single residential units. This is due to all of the differences listed above, such as size and complexity. Commercial HVAC systems require highly skilled technicians to work on, as they also need to be professionally installed. You should never attempt to repair an HVAC system yourself.

Both residential and commercial HVAC systems serve the same purpose, however they are completely different machines.To ensure that your HVAC system (commercial or residential) is performing its best, make sure you are always getting routine checkups.

Why Now Is the Time to Have Your Furnace Looked At

No one wants to think about the cold days of winter, however, you should always have your furnace prepared before the season begins. A fully working furnace is imperative to surviving the harsh temperatures of winter, and it is best to ensure it is in working order sooner than later. Here are three reasons why you should have your furnace inspected right now.

Completing maintenance on your furnace before the weather gets too cold can give you peace of mind because knowing your furnace is in the best shape will alleviate any stress if there is an issue during the cold months ahead. A furnace that operates at its best performance is crucial to surviving the winter, as it can be incredibly difficult to maintain a comfortable temperature without it.

When your furnace sits and collects dust in the warmer months, it can get grimy and dirty. This makes it so it doesn’t perform as well as it should be, and it can end up using more energy than intended. Not only will this end up costing you more money for utility bills, but it can also lead to serious problems down the road. Getting preemptive inspections and cleaning will ensure that your furnace is in running condition, saving you more money and having a lesser impact on the environment.

Inspecting and repairing a furnace before it is running will make it prepared to handle the cold before it gets too late. Early maintenance will ensure all of the mechanical parts and lubrication are proper, which in turn will allow a smooth airflow. Regularly scheduled maintenance will extend the lifespan of your furnace, so you won’t ever have to worry about major repairs shortly.