Follow proper maintenance schedules

PTACs and HVACs should be treated similarly to how a person treats a car. Every 3,000 miles you change the oil and perform proper engine maintenance to keep the car operating efficiently—the same care must go into air conditioning your hotel.

“If that coil is blocked for any reason, it doesn’t breathe at a 100-percent rate, then it will decline; and not only does it decline, [but] it uses much more energy than it should to cool a room,” said Howard Cohen, president of ChemTron.

The benefits of proper maintenance will assist your hotel through a chain of events: If your units are maintained, they won’t break down or require new parts as often, which will save money and labor. And the cleaner the units are, the more efficient they are, which saves money on utilities. The “3,000-mile” plateau for a PTAC is once a year, Cohen said.
Just looking at the unit for filth buildup doesn’t tell the whole story.

“There is so much fungus in these units, you can look and say it’s clean, but we have chemistry to show the contaminations,” Cohen said.

Before calling an expert for a yearly cleaning, there are some steps you can take. It’s best to check the filtration four times a year, said Eric Bowman, product manager for Rheem. That number should vary depending on how dirty the area is in general. Also, make sure the outdoor coil is free from debris.

All of these little checks add up to keep a hotel’s costs and temperatures down.