Yesterday was Earth Day, and here at Arista we work hard to be environmental leaders in the HVAC&R industry, both in our offices and in the field. We created our Blue Sky Initiative to inform our community about currently available clean and green practices. We believe that we can all be comfortable without sacrificing air quality or overtaxing our natural resources. In honor of Earth Day, this post is dedicated to one of the key ways regular HVAC maintenance can actually help promote a healthy environment!
Rooftop HVAC Units: Out of Sight Shouldn’t Mean Out of Mind
You probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the roof of your building. Why should you? It’s just there to keep you sheltered, safe and comfortable. As long as it’s not leaking, there’s not much to think about, right? Wrong. There’s something up there that desperately needs your attention: your HVAC rooftop unit.
An HVAC rooftop unit (known as an RTU) provides the heating, cooling and most of the ventilation for light commercial spaces, such as office buildings, stores and shopping centers, restaurants and schools. An RTU is a single assembled unit that includes a condenser and an evaporator coil for cooling, a heat source and a fan for forced air heating, and an opening for the intake of outside air.Read More
Does Your HVAC Service Provider Have a Disaster Recovery Plan?
It seems like every day we wake up to find that another natural disaster or emergency has wreaked havoc on cities, businesses and countless lives. It’s enough to keep a business owner up at night, wondering if your business could survive such a situation. What would you do if it happened to you?
It’s no secret that having a disaster recovery plan can make the difference between getting back up and running after a catastrophe and losing your business permanently. You probably have plans in place for evacuation, communication with employees and customers, power supply and data access. But there is an equally important aspect of emergency planning that many fail to consider: are your service providers prepared for disasters, and will they be able to respond when you need them most?Read More
Clean HVAC System Condenser Coils = Lower Energy Bills
New York City air is rough on air conditioners. Especially on those hot days when your air conditioner needs to work at peak capacity, it’s easy to see the air quality problems in the brown haze that hangs over the city. The high levels of airborne soot and debris cause buildup on the outdoor components of your air conditioning unit, most notably the condenser coil.
Did you know that only 1/100th of an inch of dirt buildup on your air conditioner’s condenser coil reduces its efficiency by 5 percent? Buildup on the coils means your equipment has to work harder to cool your building, and when it works harder, it uses more energy. That means higher energy costs for you. If your air conditioner has not been serviced in a while, the buildup of dirt and debris on the condenser coils could be increasing your electric bill by as much as 20 to 30 percent.Read More
If I Have a Warranty, Why Do I Need an HVAC Service Contract?
Your last air conditioner broke down on the hottest day of the year, and now you’ve got a brand new system installed. You’re probably breathing a sigh of relief and thinking you’re good to go. But there is one more thing you need to take care of, and it may be the reason your old system failed in the first place. You need to set up a service contract for your new system that covers regular preventative maintenance with a qualified HVAC service provider.
Many business owners make the mistake of thinking that they don’t need a service contract because their equipment’s warranty covers them in case anything goes wrong. The truth is, warranties typically only cover product defects. If you want to keep your system running smoothly and efficiently for many years to come, you need the regular maintenance that is covered under a service contract.Read More
Go Mobile or Go Home: Why Your HVAC Vendor Should Be Using Mobile Technology
Does your HVAC service technician show up with a paper work order in hand? Does he continuously have to go out to the truck to call the office for information? When you want to pay with a credit card, does he scribble down the information on a piece of paper?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you should consider switching to a provider that uses more efficient hand held mobile devices to support the work order process. Devices can include smart phones, tablet computers, and dedicated wireless devices. Use of the latest communication technology is not just easier for the provider, but results in quicker response times, better security and more reliable service for you.Read More
