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Offices around the airport, medical and dental suites, showrooms and restaurants along the coast.
A record per unit, and it belongs to the building
What is installed, where it sits, roughly what age, the state of its mounts and penetrations, whether the economiser moves where there is one, what filters it actually takes, the condition of the electrical connections. Readings go against the unit rather than the building, which is what turns a pile of invoices into a record.
In a leased suite that document is also the thing that settles arguments. It is much easier to establish who is responsible for what when somebody has written down what exists.
Twice a year
- Condenser coils cleaned properly rather than rinsed
- Charge verified by superheat and subcooling
- Belts, bearings and drive alignment where applicable
- Economiser dampers opened and proved to travel
- Drains cleared and float switches tested
- Electrical connections torqued, contactors inspected
- Corrosion noted and photographed on coastal plant
- Combustion tested on gas sections, figures recorded
- Heat exchangers inspected
- Flue and combustion air checked as installed
- Defrost proved on heat pumps
- Filters replaced with ones that fit the rack
- Readings compared against spring and the drift noted
- Outside air dampers checked for having been shut and forgotten
Two things worth doing before you sign
- What is on the roof or the deck, its age and condition
- The mounts, curbs and penetrations, which are often the real cost
- Whether the capacity has anything to do with the intended use
- Whether outside air and extract exist at all
- Electrical capacity at the unit
- Where the condensate goes
Leases in this market frequently say the tenant maintains the equipment serving their suite, without anybody establishing what condition it is in on the day the lease starts. That is how a five-year lease begins with a twelve-year-old rooftop unit and a surprise.
A survey before signing is a negotiating position. A survey afterwards is a repair bill.
What we turn down
Chiller plant, building management systems on proprietary protocols, and anything that genuinely wants a controls engineer rather than a mechanical contractor. In dental and medical suites we will install, maintain and measure, but we will not sign off ventilation against a clinical standard — that wants an engineer who does that work and can take responsibility for the design.
We also turn down a maintenance contract on a building we have not surveyed.