During summer, prepare for the heating season

During the summer, many building owners and property managers forget about their heating systems entirely and focus only on maximizing the efficiency of their cooling systems. However, there are many steps you can take in the summer to prepare for the upcoming heating season. Planning ahead can save money and increase building efficiency. Prepare for Summer The first step is to prepare your heating system for the summer months. You will want to top off the boiler to make sure that the water is above the coil. If your boiler provides domestic hot water, reduce the aquastat temperature and set the burner to low fire. If you are using the USE Controller BEMS, a comprehensive heating and cooling monitoring and management system, then simply use the aquastat staging feature. Be Proactive Summer is the best time to arrange boiler and burner service by a qualified technician. Ask them to clean the air passages, remove soot, oil the circulating pumps and motors, repair leaks, replace belts, lube oil filters, and clean the fireside. Most importantly, ask them to check the system for signs of faulty equipment or items that need to be repaired or replaced. If it has been more than five years since the last oil tank cleaning, it is probably time to book a cleaning. Many owners and managers skip these steps or wait until the start of heating season. However, summer is the best time to arrange an appointment with the service technicians, because they are less busy and can devote more attention to your buildings. By being proactive, you can prevent major problems with your heating system and can extend the useful life of the boiler. You may wind up replacing the boiler every 10 years if you do not take proactive steps now. Be Tech Savvy At the start of each summer, you should review data from the prior heating season, compare it to prior years, and analyze it in relation to similar buildings. While you should have ideally been monitoring key heating metrics, such as stack temperature, each day throughout heating season, it is also important to also look at the season as a whole and determine if your building is working at optimal efficiency. Using USE Manager, the information hub of U.S. Energy Group's BEMS, this analysis can be done very easily. As summer begins, focus on your heating system. For more tips on maximizing building efficiency visit www.use-group.com. Jerry Pindus is the CEO of U.S. Energy Group, Fresh Meadows, N.Y.