Don’t waste money by deferring the cost of maintenance
Some quick facts before we get started:
- Roughly 2/3 of energy created across all sources was wasted in 2019
- The U.S. Department of Energy reports that maintenance can improve energy efficiency (and thus savings) by up to 20%.
Every facilities professional knows that their equipment has an estimated useful life. In other words, HVAC systems do not last forever! Typically, the range of this useful life is between 5 and 20 years depending on the unit. But somewhere in the fineprint on those manufacturer warranties mentions that useful life only applies “with proper maintenance.”
As such, don’t be surprised if your machinery breaks down early — we’ve seen units with 20 year useful lives be brought down to 10 years when property managers neglect them.
And yet, building operators still try to save money by deferring their maintanence. Here is the key fact you should know when you defer maintenance:
Running a piece of equipment until failure costs between three and 10 times as much as a good maintenance program.
According to facility management professionals from JLL, the savings from not lubricating moving parts, replacing minor components, and paying maintenance staff is quickly negated by the cost of unexpected breakdowns and more frequent replacements.
So our recommendation at Frank Gay Services is to avoid emergency situations that require overtime labor charges or rush-to-order replacement machines — do it right the first time and sign up for a preventative maintenance plan!
