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Preventive Maintenance
Troubleshooting Cooling Issues Can Help Cut Costs in a Tight Economy
Preventive maintenance of existing equipment is a priority during this tight economy. Many businesses are holding back from large purchases and a looking for efficient measures to get the most ROI from legacy hardware. And, getting more from cooling applications is a good start.
Is maintenance for cooling really necessary?
All mechanical systems require preventive maintenance to ensure optimum performance. Preventive maintenance is critical for maintaining system cooling efficiencies, operating costs, and minimizing potential downtime.
Cooling modules have moving parts that eventually wear out; therefore, the purpose of maintenance is to make those components last as long as possible, perform within their originally designed operating parameters and to replace components before they fail. This is especially crucial in today’s data center environment where downtime can have hazardous effects on a business.
Too many tasks; Which to take?
Maintenance tasks vary from model-to-model. Users must collaborate with their local authorized service representative and consult their user manual for a complete list of applicable tasks for their equipment.
· Air filters – Clogged air filters reduce airflow through the systems and increase the load on the blower drive system. This can result in reduced system cooling performance; higher operating costs, reduced component life and higher operating temperatures of the equipment in the data center.
· Blower drive system – The blower belts, bearings, motors and wheels need to be inspected regularly. Wear or damage to any of these components may result in reduction or loss of airflow or cooling performance.
· Steam generating humidifiers - Humidifiers may be connected with valves and hoses that may leak and drains may become clogged over time. These components should be inspected regularly. Steam generating humidifiers are vulnerable to water deposits that can diminish humidifier performance. Once these deposits form, more power is required to achieve the same level of humidification and the assembly begins to deteriorate toward failure.
· Infrared humidifiers - IR Humidifier bulbs may burn out—diminishing performance. Drains and pans should be inspected for deposits and clogs. When handling humidifier bulbs, it is important not to touch the glass bulb with your fingers—the residue from skin oils creates a 'hot spot' on the bulb that reduces the life of the bulb.
· Reheat – Inspect and clean reheat elements – inspect and tighten support hardware.
· Compressor – Inspect oil level and check for leaks. Compressors running with too much or too little oil will see diminished service life. Always use the same type of oil supplied with the compressor from the manufacturer.
· Facility Fluid and Piping – Units connected to facility water or glycol should perform necessary maintenance to assure the quality of the fluid.
· Evaporating Coils – evaporator coils should be checked periodically to verify they are clean and free of debris. Dirty coils are less efficient at removing heat.
· Condenser and dry coolers – these should be clean and free of debris. Motor mounts should be tight. Bearings should be free and in good condition. Refrigerant lines should be properly supported.
If a company had time to perform only one preventive maintenance task on its cooling devices on a regular basis, what should that task be?
We consider preventive maintenance a process which takes into account the overall operation of a unit so it is difficult to isolate a single task. At minimum, we recommend regular inspections of all major components by authorized service personnel. This can help identify systems at risk of failure, preventing downtime and reducing maintenance costs.
Fortunately for Emerson Network Power customers, Liebert systems are fully redundant so the system keeps cooling even when most components fail. However, operating in a mode of waiting for components to fail and replacing them exposes the user to data center downtime risks, and those risks are too costly for most businesses. Also, a replace-on-failure approach has been proven to be a much more expensive than doing maintenance on an appropriate schedule.
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