Electrical Preventative Maintenance with Site Plus
Just like you go to the doctor, or take your vehicle to the shop for regular check-up’s and maintenance, electrical systems need the same type of care! Having annual or regularly scheduled maintenance on your systems and equipment can help electricians identify issues or indicators that may lead to costly service disruptions or breakdowns in the future.
At Site Plus, we find that electrical preventative maintenance is often overlooked. However, electrical maintenance is the most cost effective way to ensure your site stays in good, working condition and avoid costly & time consuming outages. Having your equipment and site checked or inspected regularly also provides a safe working environment for employees and personnel.
What is Electrical Preventative Maintenance?
At its core, preventative maintenance is servicing or maintaining something to keep it in peak operating condition. In the automotive space this may be like an oil change, or a teeth cleaning at the dentist.
The service or maintenance may mean performing an inspection, running tests, measuring performance, cleaning material and or small part replacement.
In the electrical preventative maintenance world, we service and/or maintain projects that have been completed, to ensure they are operating and functioning as they should. Once a job has been completed we always discuss electrical preventative maintenance programs with our clients, to help maintain its efficiency and functionality for years to come.
What is included in a preventative maintenance program?
Once we discuss plans with our clients, we then begin acting on the agreed maintenance program. The actions required can vary from client to client, depending on the project and work completed. Our maintenance programs include thing such as:
- Site surveys: inspection of the site and equipment on a regular basis.
- Annual electrical testing: yearly testing of components to ensure functionality.
- Minor general updates: such as reattaching a loose wire or replacing a fuse.
- Check indicators: check sensors and warning lights or other indicators to make sure they are working properly.
- Thermographic inspection: used to test a variety of issues that may arise in electrical components such as poor connections and faulty insulation.
- Lighting system upgrades and replacements: ensuring lighting systems are working properly and have the latest technology to ensure efficiency.
- Voltage testing: applying a current to a circuit to ensure the value is meeting what is expected.
The short list above is just some of the items on our full preventative maintenance checklist. We inspect all sites and systems and conduct minor and moderate updates and repairs as part of the maintenance programs.
Why do you need electrical preventative maintenance?
As mentioned above, we believe that proper preventative maintenance can save big businesses and corporations thousands of dollars and hours of downtime. With any piece of equipment or tool, as you continue to use it over time it wears down. The same applies to electrical equipment.
It is normal for electrical equipment to deteriorate or wear down, but catching it before it results in equipment failures is imperative. If new equipment is installed and goes unchecked, issues and malfunctions can happen that could cause equipment to stop working resulting in significant downtime.
What could happen without it?
If electrical preventative maintenance programs are ignored the chance of equipment failure is higher and sooner than if maintained properly. Without ongoing inspections and maintenance, you could experience one or multiple of the following:
- Less efficiency: if your equipment is never serviced and maintained, it will become less and less efficient over time. Components won’t work as well, and the overall efficiency will suffer.
- System overheating: if parts aren’t working properly or wires have worn out, you run the chance of your system overheating and shutting down.
- Bad electrical connections: over time if not inspected your system may develop bad electrical connections. This may effect voltage and performance of the system.
- Build up: without proper cleaning in inspection significant build up can develop within parts and systems. Things like dust, dirt and other debris can cause a blockage within a system.
- System failure: worst case scenario, if not maintained your system could experience partial or full system failure.
It is always recommended to incorporate some type of scheduled maintenance budget into your overall working budget to keep things running smoothly and avoid issues like above. Something as simple as a regular visual inspection could catch a minor issue that can be easily fixed, to avoid a larger breakdown from happening in the future.
As a business owner, facilities manager or any other position that may be managing electrical equipment, investing in preventative maintenance programs will increase your electrical safety procedure and decrease your down time, period.
If you are looking to hire for a commercial or industrial project in Niagara Falls, ON, consider Site Plus for your next job! Our professional and properly trained technicians are ready to handle your next electrical project. We service the Niagara Falls, Ontario and surrounding areas and beyond!
