Got a site with Fan Coil units? You will be acutely aware of the ongoing high cost of maintenance associated with the requirements of maintenance standards such as SFG-20 which usually requires that the filters are cleaned every 6-months.
Fan Coil Condition Based Maintenance is a specific application of Maintenance that focuses on the maintenance of fan coil units.
The goal is to monitor the condition of the units in order to optimise and reduce those fixed maintenance schedules.
This can involve monitoring various parameters such as temperature, airflow, and water flow to detect any potential issues or deviations from normal operation. By monitoring these parameters, maintenance activities can be scheduled based on the actual condition of the units, rather than on a fixed schedule.
All well and good! However undertaking visual inspections will mean physically checking those Fan Coil units out of hours.
Because Ducted Fan Coil Units in particular are fitted above ceilings that will probably mean evening or weekend working, as desks etc will have to be cleared and it will mean 2-man working from a Health & Safety perspective.
Contractors Cut Corners
To improve the profits from a standard PPM maintenance schedules, some unscrupulous contractors have been known to cut corners when undertaking Fan Coil maintenance by missing out on a complete scheduled visit. Its easy to see if this as happened as there will be black streaks surrounding the ceiling grilles.
Automating the process
IoT Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) is a maintenance strategy that focuses on monitoring the condition of an asset or equipment in order to determine when maintenance should be performed.
It involves using various techniques such as installing special IoT sensors, data analysis, and predictive algorithms to assess the health and performance of the filter. By continuously monitoring the condition, CBM aims to optimise maintenance activities, reduce downtime, and minimise costs.
You are probably already familiar with IoT Remote monitoring of Air Filters in Air Handling Units which has been around for some time and is relatively easy to do as an AHU is essentially a sealed box, but doing it on a Fan Coil is much harder because of the filter type, location and attachment to the Fan Coil.
We have developed our EnviroLogik AirFlow Pro unit specifically for monitoring the filter condition in Fan Coil units. Its been working continuously in the Hallmark Building in Central London and is enabling CBRE's site team to offer the client to Cut Fan Coil Unit Maintenance costs with IoT Condition Based Maintenance
One of the key advantages of CBM is that it helps to avoid unnecessary maintenance activities. Instead of performing maintenance based on a fixed schedule or when a failure occurs, CBM allows for maintenance to be performed only when it is actually needed.
This can result in significant cost savings by reducing the frequency of maintenance activities and minimising the impact of unplanned downtime.
The IoT labour savings can be very impressive.
i.e. Based on a site with 250 Fan Coil Units. The manual labour required to undertake 2 Services out of hours is as follows:
250 Fan Coils x 30 minutes service per fan coil = 125 hours.
2 Men working 2 x 125 = (250hours)
Out of Hours at weekends @ £40/hr x 250 hours = £10,000 p.a.
With IoT you can choose to monitor a percentage of the total No of fan coils per floor i.e. (10%) as an indication of the filter condition of all the fan coils. This results in a fraction of the manual costs above
Therefore when the fan coil filters are actually degrading then when our system detects that, it will alert the FM's and other stakeholders that maintenance needs to be undertaken. At the Hallmark Building they have managed to reduce the frequency of filter cleans needed and pass this onto the customer.
Energy Savings from Hybrid Working
One additional benefit has come from switching off fan coils (and the connected cooling equipment) due to reduced occupancy because of hybrid working.
If you have any specific questions about our IoT Fan Coil Condition Based Maintenance solution, feel free to ask!
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