Question 1

How often should I have my air conditioner serviced?

Accepted Answer

At least twice a year and potentially more frequently in a dirty / dusty environment – like areas with a lot of people and movement, such as sites near busy roads or other dust sources.
Regular servicing of your air conditioner will reduce energy consumption costs.
It is a condition of most commercial leases that the tenant maintains the air conditioners. In the event there is a failure of the system caused by a lack of maintenance, then the landlord may be entitled to have the tenant pay for the repairs / system replacement.

Question 2

Why is our meeting room always hot?

Accepted Answer

In a commercial setting, fluctuating meeting room temperatures are a common problem. The reason being is the changing heat load in meeting rooms.
People generate heat – so you can understand why the heat generated by two people is vastly different to that generated by ten or more.
The solution is to have dynamic and reactive cooling in the meeting room. This is commonly done by means of installing a separate supplementary system or by having thermostatically controlled variable damping of air supply.

Question 3

Why are there hot and cold spots in our office?

Accepted Answer

There are a number of reasons why you have hot and cold spots in an office environment. Some of the common ones are:

Uneven temperature across a large room – caused by unbalanced air flows.
Hot offices and rooms when doors are closed – due to a lack of return air pathway
Hot / cold offices and rooms that have sun exposure – varying heat load caused by thermal radiation requires variable air supply to maintain a constant temperature

All of these problems can be remedied, some of them reasonably cheaply.

Question 4

Our office air conditioner is broken – who should pay to have it fixed / replaced?

Accepted Answer

Under most commercial leases routine servicing and maintenance are for the tenants account. This includes servicing, filter cleaning and replacement, and maintenance / replacement of controllers.
Capital repairs and system replacements are normally for the landlord’s account. This ranges from major repairs, like compressor replacements through to replacement of a system beyond economic repair.
We have seen leases where the tenant is responsible for all costs – such that they are required to hand an air conditioner back to the landlord at the end of the lease in the same condition as it was handed over at the start of the lease.
In all cases you should read your lease to determine who needs to pay for what.

Question 5

How can I reduce air conditioning costs?

Accepted Answer

Ensure your system is well maintained and reduce run. Some ways of doing this are:

Ensuring your filters are clean and the outdoor unit is clear of air pathway obstructions
Reduce heat load coming into your property - by externally shading windows or by shutting curtains / blinds
Set the fan on your systems to “auto” rather than on a fixed speed. The fixed speed setting continually circulates air throughout your property to balance the temperature and help you feel more comfortable. But the “auto” setting is the more inexpensive option because it saves energy—the fan only blows when the A/C is producing cool air.
Raise the set temperature. Most people are comfortable in an air conditioned environment set at 25 degrees. As a general rule, each degree increase in set temperature, reduces air conditioner energy consumption by 10%.

For more information on heat load, see these sources;

Heating and cooling loads
The Importance of Heat Load Calculation

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