Commercial air conditioning is usually one of the largest energy users and most expensive assets in a building. Yet servicing is often reactive — someone calls when it stops cooling. A planned maintenance programme costs less over the life of the plant, reduces breakdowns and gives owners the information they need to budget for replacements.
So how often should it be serviced? The honest answer is: it depends on the equipment, how hard it works and what the manufacturer requires. Here’s how we approach it.
Start with the manufacturer’s requirements
Every system comes with manufacturer maintenance requirements, and warranty terms often depend on them being followed. These set the minimum for filters, coils, drains, refrigerant checks and controls. Our maintenance schedules always start here.
Then look at how the building uses the plant
Two identical systems can need very different servicing. Things that increase maintenance frequency include:
- Long operating hours — 24/7 sites, hospitality, healthcare and data rooms
- Dusty or dirty environments — warehouses, workshops, kitchens and sites near construction
- Coastal locations — salt air accelerates corrosion on outdoor coils and fittings
- Critical spaces — server rooms, labs and cold storage where downtime costs more than maintenance
A practical starting point
For most commercial offices and retail sites, a typical programme looks like this — then adjusted to the site:
- Quarterly: filter cleaning or replacement, visual inspection, drain and condensate checks, operational checks
- Six-monthly: coil cleaning, electrical connections and controls checks, refrigerant and performance checks
- Annually: full inspection and condition report, with recommendations and forward planning for ageing equipment
High-use or critical sites often move to monthly visits. Lightly used systems may be fine with less.
Don’t forget the specialist items
Some plant comes with its own obligations. Cooling towers, for example, are subject to state health regulations and the AS/NZS 3666 series for Legionella control, and need their own documented maintenance and testing regime. Ventilation systems serving occupied spaces need to keep delivering their design airflow. Your maintenance contractor should identify these during the first site survey.
What good maintenance reporting looks like
A service visit is only as useful as the information that comes back. Look for:
- An up-to-date asset register with locations, models and ages
- Defects and recommendations ranked by priority and risk
- Notes on remaining life, so replacements can be budgeted rather than forced by a breakdown
- Consistent records you can hand to insurers, auditors or a future buyer
AIRAH’s DA19 HVAC&R Maintenance manual is a useful industry reference for structuring a maintenance programme.
Need a maintenance programme?
We build maintenance agreements around the equipment, the site and how your building operates, across Perth and Sydney. See our service and maintenance offering or get in touch to arrange a site survey.