Maintenance Contracts: Selling System Efficiency

Financial uncertainty is forcing building owners to reduce costs. As they prioritize expenses, their building’s HVAC systems usually represent the highest percentage of capital costs and operating expenses in repairs, replacements, energy, as well as opportunity costs. These latter costs are revenue sources directly affected by failed systems, such as a restaurant with no cooling that loses customers.

The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), and other organizations have documented that scheduled maintenance reaps tangible financial returns, and intangible returns such as improved comfort, employee productivity, indoor air quality (IAQ) and peace of mind. Selling, Performance Barriers

Selling, Performance Barriers

Maintenance programs can be a tough sell. Unlike installations or service calls in which a new product is installed, maintenance is usually invisible. The improved airflow, reduced motor amperage draw, clean coils, or other improvements are not readily perceptible to the customer, therefore customers often question their value.

Some customers compare maintenance contracts to appliance insurance programs, where a fee is paid in advance, and repairs are performed at no charge. In these insurance programs, maintenance is never performed as part of the contract. Systems that have deteriorated from lack of maintenance are hidden by the original oversizing of the original equipment. An illusion of proper performance is created because comfort is achieved most of the time.

But in reality, the system runs 80% of the time, fighting dirt when it should be operating at 30% during mild weather. The escalating energy use of the dirty system is invisible because energy bill increases occur very slowly over time.

Usually, the first major symptom of lack of maintenance is premature equipment failure, such as a compressor, heat exchanger, coil, or blower fan motor. The customer then views maintenance as a waste of money — they still have to pay for the repair, though it may never have been needed if the maintenance had been performed.

Busby’s has developed a commercial maintenance brochure with captioned pictures of the typical maintenance tasks performed.

Some contractors view maintenance as a task installers and technicians perform when things are slow, rather than staffing a maintenance division with highly-trained, full-time technicians. Other performance barriers include:

1. Maintenance technicians who are relatively low paid.
2. A lack of field supervision.
3. Lack of documented maintenance standards.

A maintenance contract is a “prescription for peace.” When you can predict component failures and other normally unexpected events, the chaos, disruption, noise, and reduced productivity normally associated with HVAC repairs can be dramatically reduced.

The Need for Maintenance
Newer, 13 SEER+ plus cooling and heat pump systems, and 80%+ AFUE furnaces are more adversely affected by a poor installation or lack of maintenance. The coils trap dirt more readily because their fins are closer together, the lighter gauge of heat exchangers are more easily damaged by hot spots, and the thinner metal used in coils is more easily prone to leaks by the higher refrigerant pressures. Customers and even contractors usually blame the manufacturers for poor quality control when premature equipment failures occur. In actuality, the systems failed because they had reached the end of their rated useful life, having to run so hard, fighting against years of accumulated dirt and lack of tuning.