Get the Scoop on These Common Warm Weather Commercial HVAC Issues

Know When It’s Time to Call for Repairs

We’re heading into warm weather here in the Southland, and it’s a time when all commercial building owners need to be cognizant of potential issues that go along with summertime HVAC. Read about common problems below:

Suspicious Puddles:

Seeing any mysterious fluid around your commercial HVAC equipment? It could be refrigerant, the essential “secret sauce” that lets your air conditioning remove heat from your commercial building. Without this fluid, your system will not cool efficiently, resulting in higher energy bills and ultimately total loss of cooling power.

Along with inspecting for liquids, you can also do a quick check of the temp of the air coming from your vents. If it doesn’t seem cold, your system could be losing refrigerant.

AC Cycles That Seem Way Too Short

Is your air conditioning stopping and starting far too frequently? You may have an electrical short. Along with costing you more in utility bills, these rapid cycles also force greater overall wear and tear on your HVAC system. You’ll burn out equipment faster, and end up with far more repair issues than necessary. Get a qualified technician to inspect your system to ensure it’s running appropriately.

Weak Overall Cooling

HVAC that doesn’t seem to be cooling that well is another common problem, and one that if addressed quickly, can often easily be solved before it leads to costlier issues. From swapping out the air filters to improve airflow to inspecting the air handler, an HVAC professional can test your equipment for the source of the problem.

Weird Smells and Musty Odors

Nothing discourages a potential tenant more than an unpleasant smell emanating from your commercial building. In this era of increased awareness of health and safety issues around HVAC itself, it is mission critical to identify the source of these smells and remove their cause.

Mold and mildew usually indicate moisture is not draining properly from the HVAC unit. An HVAC technician will locate the source of the mold buildup, clean and fix the issue.

One note: if you smell something like rotten eggs, call a professional as soon as possible. A sulfurous odor could be a gas leak.

While hopefully you’ve been keeping up with preventative maintenance tasks, knowing the signs of common HVAC problems will save you time and hassle later on, usually on the hottest day of the year. Your tenants will thank you, and your wallet will too.

 

Commercial building owners rely on Air-Tro, the heating and air conditioning experts for the San Gabriel Valley since 1969. Call us a (626) 357-3535.