Budgeting for HVAC maintenance and repairs can feel like playing darts in the dark. It’s hard to determine how much to set aside for the year or how often you should schedule preventative maintenance. If you schedule too many check-ups, you might be paying too much. If you don’t schedule enough, you may find that major components need to be replaced more frequently. Every facility manager bravely treads this thin line between overscheduling and under-scheduling, and decisions are typically made based on experience, best practices, and old fashion guesswork. GridPoint has created an automated and systematic method to this madness in the newly released, patent-pending HVAC testing tool: HVAC Scope.
What Is an Automated HVAC Test?
GridPoint’s automated HVAC Scope test is a new way to run diagnostic and performance tests on HVAC units without lifting a finger. After the quick, initial setup, the HVAC Scope tool will test HVAC units individually on a pre-set cadence. The test can be set up to run at night when the building is empty to create a controlled test environment and eliminate any interference with normal business operations. It can also be run on-demand if needed.
When run, the HVAC Scope tool will test each unit one at a time to reduce any influence between units. It will prompt the HVAC units to run through several different modes: fan off, fan on, stage 1 cooling, stage 2 cooling, stage 1 heating, and stage 2 heating. This enables GridPoint to use the environmental, energy, and HVAC data collected at the site to pinpoint issues such as a fan that is not blowing air or a compressor that is not cooling enough. A report is generated to help identify these specific issues before calling in a technician, reducing the time and cost it takes to resolve the issue.
Save Time and Money on HVAC Maintenance
Studies have shown that the average commercial building requires $1,700 in HVAC maintenance every year. And that number doesn’t include the internal time it takes to schedule preventative maintenance, work with technicians, or troubleshoot HVAC issues. GridPoint’s HVAC Scope feature takes the headache out of managing your units so that you can focus on the things that matter most to your business. Each time the HVAC testing tool is run – whether automatically or on-demand, you’ll receive a report that will help you:
- Reduce HVAC maintenance and repair costs
- Improve preventative maintenance scheduling with real data
- Extend the life of HVAC units through better care
- Eliminate last-minute HVAC calls during seasonal changes
- Reduce the time it takes to diagnose and fix HVAC issues
HVAC Test Details
The value of GridPoint’s HVAC Scope tool is derived from granular data collected at sites paired with control capabilities within each unit. As the test runs, each stage of heating and cooling is run while data is continuously collected. The GridPoint controller runs calculations in the background to report the operational status of each zone and stage. This report will enable technicians on-site to see if there are any components of the HVAC unit that are non-operational by looking at the power consumption for each stage during the test. It will also let them know how well an HVAC unit is cooling or heating by showing temperature changes at each stage. These reports are sent to GridPoint Energy Manager for further analysis in a downloadable report. Over time, the trended performance of each HVAC unit can be used to fine-tune preventative maintenance schedules. These reports can be run for multiple units across multiple sites to quickly and easily manage the repair and maintenance of HVAC units for an entire enterprise.