Winter is Coming! Get the Best Winter Maintenance Tips Here

Winter creates a slew of maintenance challenges, making issues that arise difficult to contend with. For this reason, preparing your building for winter weather is crucial to safeguarding your business from unanticipated maintenance headaches and costly emergency service repairs. Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to avoid common issues with a bit of preventative maintenance.

6 Simple Commercial Maintenance Tips to Ensure a Trouble-Free Season

1. Inspect your heating system early in the season.
   Your heating system is vital to continuing business operations in winter weather. Make sure it is prepared for the task with preventative maintenance early in the season. Fall maintenance ensures your rooftop unit or heat pump will function properly when you need it most. It can identify serious safety issues such as cracks in your furnace’s heat exchanger and venting issues that could lead to carbon monoxide buildup in your building. As a bonus, clean, well-tuned heating systems will also help you keep your energy costs in check.
2. Replace ailing systems.
   Systems over 10 years old are notoriously inefficient. Today’s Energy Star systems offer impressive performance, boasting efficiencies over 90%, quickly recouping their cost in energy savings. They could also qualify your business for local tax and utility energy efficiency incentives. Upgrading now, before the busy winter season, could save you the headache and expense of long wait times.
3. Address duct leaks.
   Properly insulated, tightly connected, sealed duct systems ensure warm, conditioned get where you need it most – inside your building, not your attic.
4. Prepare your cooling system for winter weather.
   Just because you don’t use your commercial cooling system over the winter doesn’t mean you can just let it sit. To protect equipment, it must be properly shut down and winterized. Draining your cooling tower, emptying the condensate drain trap on your chiller, and taking the steps necessary to address off-season equipment can prevent extreme damage.
5. Re-tune your thermostat.
   Verify the proper function of your thermostat, calibrating it for winter use. This “brain” of your commercial heating system can provide serious energy savings when adjusted to a cooler but comfortable winter setting compared to the summer. For every degree dropped, you can save an average of 1% on your heating costs. Ancient thermostat? Programmable smart thermostats are an inexpensive upgrade, and they can help you save, lowering the temperature when your building is not in use and preventing frequent setting adjustments by warring employees. Talk to your local HVAC commercial pro about the best options for your business.
6.  Check for air leaks and heat loss.
   Carefully inspect areas around doors, windows, electrical, plumbing, and venting, checking for costly leaks that can let warm, heated air escape. Seal them with the appropriate caulk or weather stripping. Make sure your attic, basement, and walls are insulated to the proper thickness, adding insulation when necessary.

Freezing buildings don’t entice customer purchases or employee productivity. Protect your bottom line and ensure a comfortable winter environment with the help of H & H Commercial Services today.

This blog was originally posted at https://hhcommercialonline.com/winter-is-coming-get-the-best-winter-maintenance-tips-here/