The Negative Impacts of Air Bypass and What You Can Do To Eliminate It
Maintaining a comfortable, safe and efficient facility is a top priority for any business owner or...
Since its founding in 1960, BFC Solutions has been headquartered in beautiful Nashville, TN. The capital city is unique and known for its notoriety, big business, and year-round tourism. Home to the Smoky Mountains, Dollywood, and other attractions, Tennessee offers entertainment, food, landscape, and more!
To its natives and residents, however, Tennessee is also known for something else unique—its "12 Seasons." With slight variation, the locals have dubbed the 12 as:
False Fall > Second Summer > Actual Fall > Winter
Fool's Spring > Winter II > Spring of Deception > Winter III
The Pollening > Actual Spring > Summer > Blazing
We are also sometimes uncertain of which particular Season we're in, but we know we can count on climate vacillations that rotate as often as the calendar itself!
This unpredictability can bring a certain... charm - a unique aspect of living in Tennessee that keeps us on our toes.
These shifts can also pose significant challenges to maintaining a comfortable temperature – for our personal clothing choices and our collective HVAC comfort capabilities.
***Consider how these external elements can significantly affect comfort, capability, and cost with our HVAC's***
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Wind transference of dust, dirt, and pollen can cause air filters and coils to clog more rapidly, causing difficulty in circulating air, a primary function of HVAC systems. One pollen in particular - cottonwood, can form a blanket-like layer on your Condenser Coils, reducing the system's cooling ability. Pollen grains can range in size from 10 to 100 micrometers, while dust and dirt particles can be much smaller, typically in the range of 0.1 to 10 micrometers. Smaller particles penetrate the system more quickly, while larger particles contribute to faster filter clogging. This bypass can lead to poor IAQ / allergy triggers, increased energy consumption, and accelerated wear on system components.
- Extreme temperatures can cause ice to form on evaporator coils, exasperated when filters are not changed regularly. As filters clog, airflow is reduced across the evaporator, permitting uncirculated humid air to freeze. As ice accumulates, the HVAC system loses efficiency for transferring heat or cooling conditioned air. The compressor, fans, and motors must work harder to compensate for the reduced airflow, putting more strain on the system. In extreme cases, the evaporator coil can freeze over, engulfing the filter and even the access door in ice.
While we may not be able to control the external elements, we can certainly manage our system's internal components to ensure its efficiency, energy usage, and cost.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, effective preventive maintenance for commercial HVAC systems can result in energy cost savings of 5-20% annually, indicating a significant increase in efficiency through proper maintenance practices. BFC Solutions makes preventive maintenance easy, offering a range of services to keep your Commercial HVAC system running efficiently. Our proprietary customer reporting system, ReportLink™, documents minor to critical issues, including weather-related ones, keeping you aware of PM-related equipment issues.
Replacing filters often, conducting inspections, and regular preventive maintenance can mitigate weather impacts on HVAC effectuation, helping to create predictability, even in the most unpredictable weather.