Public sector facilities preventive maintenance is critical to efficient facilities management, however, rarely performed with financial and technical visibility and transparency.
What is it?
Preventive maintenance (PM): The systematic and cyclic check, inspection, and correction of minor deficiencies, as well as reporting of deficiencies beyond the scope of preventive maintenance. PM may include the minor accomplishment of maintenance and repair.
How is it typically done?
Most, if not all, public sector real property owners have extraordinarily little visibility into facilities preventive maintenance costs or granular associated task line times.
For example, owners may require a preventive maintenance activity and an associate cost from a contractor. This cost is general provided as a lump sum, for example “XX day inspection and maintenance of 60 ton chiller- $XXXXX.XX dollars”. The only source of cost information is from the service provider. Then net result is that owners are paying 30%-40% more than needed.
What if?
What if each building system component where not only identified and associated with the following information, but also linked to an associated detailed and locally researched unit price book with associated labor, material, equipment costs and productivity information?
- Building component system or type of building equipment group, i.e. Electrical (ELEC), Heating Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC)
- Type of equipment, i.e. Chiller, Transformer…
- Further definition of equipment by number
- Frequency and the specific list of detailed maintenance tasks to be performed
- Line items detailing each associated individual task and cost component
Example – 80 Ton Centrifugal Chiller – Preventive Maintenance
1. Lubricate drive couplings.
2. Check and correct alignment of drive couplings.
3. Lubricate motor bearings (non-hermetic)
4. Lightly lubricate vane control linkage bearings, ball joints and pivot points. DO
NOT LUBRICATE the shaft of the vane operator.
5. Remove refrigerant in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions. Sample
test the refrigerant and oil to verify compliance with the Air Conditioning and
Refrigeration Institute standards.
6. Perform spectro-chemical analysis of compressor oil annually to determine
bearing conditions and replacing them, as necessary.
7. As oil testing indicates drain and replace oil in compressor oil reservoir
including filters, strainers, and traps. Manufacturers typically recommended that oil should be changed after the first year of operation and every five years thereafter.
8. Review the Material Data Safety Sheets (MSDS) for proper disposal of used oil. If appropriate, recycle oil at an authorized station.
9. Change the oil filter, clean strainer.
10. Drain and replace oil in purge compressor.
11. Drain and replace oil in purge gearbox.
12. Change refrigerant filter/drier on cooling line to motor (hermetic). Check moisture indicator sight glass and if moisture present find source of water leak.
13. Clean all water strainers in the system.
14. Inspect relief valves and piping. Check for valve for corrosion or foreign material and replace valves. Valves are safety devices for equipment and personnel, DO NOT attempt to repair or recondition. Increase valve inspection frequency if equipment is installed in a corrosive environment.
15. Check pressure and temperature transducers against gage on both the oil, refrigerant and water side systems.
16. Inspect evaporator and condenser tubes.
a. Evaporator tubes should be inspected and cleaned of scale. Inspect
and clean temperature sensors and flow switches.
b. Condenser tubes should be inspected and cleaned. Condenser
tubes from open tower systems may have contamination or hard
scale.
c. Excessive corrosion, scaling, erosion and algae typically indicate
improper or lack of an adequate water treatment program. Consult
water treatment standard for proper procedures.
17. Test for leaks per manufacturer’s instructions. Refrigerant leak detection can be conducted with an electronic halide leak detector, ultrasonic leak detectors or a soap bubble solution will be used along with dry nitrogen to pressurize chiller. If leaks are not able to be stopped or corrected, report leak status to supervisor.
18. Pull vacuum on refrigeration machine in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions. Add refrigerant as required per specifications.
19. Megger compressor and oil pump motors and record readings.
20. Check dash pot oil in main starter.
21. Tighten all starter, control panel, motor terminals, overloads, and oil heater eads, etc. Loose connections can cause voltage spikes and overheating leading to malfunctions and failures.
22. Check all contacts for wear, pitting, etc.
23. Check and calibrate overloads, record trip amps and trip times.
24. Check and calibrate safety controls.
25. Clean up the work area. Properly recycle or dispose of materials in accordance with environmental regulations.
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