The benefits of an on-site maintenance contract
Delrac ACS’s service and maintenance arrangements for air-conditioning installations include having a resident engineer on site for clients operating large buildings such as a corporate headquarters.
In such situations, Delrac also takes responsibility for ensuring annual safety checks such as electrical testing and infra-red scanning of all panels in accordance with legislation. The resident engineer also takes change when specialist contractors are called in.
Bill McLaughlin, managing director of Delrac ACS, says, ‘Typical problems we encounter tend to be with chillers. These are likely to be recurring issues, like leaks. Also, from a replacement point of view, the R22 gas these units use is set to become obsolete in 2010, so people are having to change their chillers.’
‘Having an on-site contract allows you to get into project work such as replacing boilers. It makes sense for ourselves as maintenance contractor to take this on, so we will be responsible in the long term for the upkeep of the plant.’
Being an on-site maintenance contractor has its frustrations. Bill McLaughlin refers to one example. ‘We suggested putting in a plate heat exchanger to replace an old calorifier. It would have paid for itself in two yeas. But the decision-making process had to go to committee, which delayed everything. In the meantime, the coil in the calorifier went, and a new one had to be custom-made. It cost double what it would have to replace the unit.’
