It is common knowledge among large facilities that a successful preventative maintenance (PM) program saves money. But far too often, these savings are not realized due to a lack of planning. By the time a technician is scheduled for PM, the facility is dealing with equipment breakdowns. For cooling processes, the optimal time for maintenance falls between March and early May. As for heating, late August to early October is best. While at first glance, you can see a two and a half month window, it is also the same window for everyone, commercial, industrial, and residential systems. If you don’t have maintenance staff on hand managing a PM program, don’t find yourself competing for your local HVAC/R company’s time.
While few business owners like the idea of maintenance contracts, they do offer legal obligations. This means during that short PM window, your annual maintenance needs are being scheduled and met first. If you choose not to enter into maintenance agreements (which is perfectly understandable), don’t wait until maintenance season to contact and schedule your required maintenance. It is perfectly acceptable to start contacting and scheduling two months in advance (i.e. Jan-Feb for cooling, July-Aug for heating), as that is when the best service companies are beginning their scheduling.