Severe weather can cause a lot of problems. Especially when it comes to HVAC systems, the seasons could be extremely brutal. Whether it’s a storm, winter with snow, summer, or heavy rainfall, you always have to be careful when it comes to your cooling and heating systems. After all, it is becoming harder, no, impossible, to live without these wonders of technology.
Here are some ways you can prep your HVAC system for severe weather.
Routine Inspection:
Before you go ahead and turn on that air conditioner or heater, you need to check the entire system. Why? Because it is better to find a fault rather than face it in the smack middle of the peak of the season. You would be a sitting duck, in that case, freezing or sweating in the low temperatures. The situation would be worse if it were a commercial or industrial HVAC system. A minor fault, and most operations would have to be stopped for who knows how long.
Keeping that in mind, you need to inspect the HVAC system thoroughly. If you are preparing for winter, the heating system should be a priority, and if summer, then the cooling system. Inspect the system thoroughly, check for potential problems, and carry out any required minor repairs or maintenance.
Covering Up Properly:
Heavy rain storms and snowfall are one of the worst enemies of your outside units and accessories. The same is the case with sand storms. So what can you do to protect your outside units?
Experts recommend not covering your outside AC units with a cover, lest it leads to excess moisture and mold infestation. But the same is not the case for sand storms. That weather brings all sorts of problems, twigs, leaves, dirt, and debris that infiltrate your air conditioner units. For those, having a cover as protection is a much better choice. The same is the case with indoor wall-mounted ACs.
But even if you can’t use a fabric cover on outdoor units, you can do something else; creating a protective shed from light metallic sheets. Those temporary covers would help a lot against the worst of snowfall or rains storm.
Preventive Maintenance:
According to experts, it’s not necessary if you schedule regular maintenance on your HVAC system every year, no matter what random advertisements might claim. But for industrial or commercial systems, it is not a choice, and it become a necessity. Thus, if you are a business owner, it is of utmost importance that you schedule preventive maintenance programs regularly. They don’t have to be just before the change in season; they just have to carry out regularly. This would prevent year-round headaches of minor problems.
Change All The Filters:
Filters should be changed regularly, even if the seasons haven’t changed yet. Government policies in many countries support this fact. But this step does fall in line with what you should do when preparing for harsh sand storms. Usually, it would take 1 to 2 months for your filters to get dirty. But in sand storms, that time limit would be accelerated to 1 month or even less if you have furry pets. So change all the filters in time.
Get a Surge Protector:
Lightning has always proven to have catastrophic effects on HVAC units or any electronic devices, as a matter of fact. Lightning storms are often predictable, and with your electronics, you should treat it being struck not as a coincidence but as an absolute certainty. The intense power surges would cause immediate failure and shutdown, and even slow ones can cause deterioration over time, just like how water wears down as tone, drop by drop. The uneven power supply is always dangerous, and lightning would heighten that effect multiple times.
To combat the danger of your HVAC system getting stuck by lightning and being fried like a cooked turkey, installing a surge protector is a must. Once you install one, it will take the worst of a lightning storm, protecting your HVAC system and electronics all the while.
Take Off Some Load:
In severe weather conditions, your HVAC system is working overtime to combat extreme temperatures. It would be exerting more effort, taking more load as time passes. But the danger increases when it’s not just extreme cold or hot seasons. Hurricanes and similar weather phenomena are way worse. This can cause irreparable damage to your system, especially if you don’t even give it a break. So, follow the professional recommendation of giving your HVAC some time off in between. If the weather gets exceptionally severe, and signs of hurricanes or tornadoes have become apparent, just shut everything down. This would also protect you from accidental fires or tripped electrical connections, leading to shocking passersby.
Have A Backup:
In unpredictable weather conditions, chances of power outages are expected. Sure, it is incredibly annoying, but that is just one of the many side effects of such natural disasters. Having a contingency plan would shield us from bearing the worst effects of extreme temperatures.
Get stand-by equipment, notably a power generator. Don’t leave it just like that; instead, prepare it so that it can be used immediately whenever the need arises. Make sure that it is well maintained all the time and will not fail at the moment when you would need it most.
Carry Out Repairs Before The Start Of The Season:
If there are any pending repairs, don’t wait until the system shuts down. Call a professional, and have them carried out immediately. The more you prolong the wait, the more danger of failure exists. It is better to deal with such things beforehand rather than wait for the situation to become an emergency.
How Can SuperAir Help You?
As one of the leading suppliers and manufacturers of HVAC accessories in China, SuperAir provides you with a global platform regarding the relevant accessories. Whether it’s just an AC cover or a full-fledged set of stands for HVAC components, you can find anything you want.
Please browse our catalog by visiting our website.
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