The Importance of Make-Up Air
What is make-up air? It’s not air that’s dressed up for a night on the town. Make-up air is the air needed to replace air lost through ventilation. Exhaust fans, water heaters and other equipment push out air from inside the building, causing negative air pressure. Making sure the air pressure is properly balanced inside a building can keep an owner from making costly repairs and installing unnecessary equipment. More modern buildings have less natural gaps in their construction, so more thought needs to be put into how to keep the good air in and push the bad air out.
Negative air pressure affects the inside of a building in multiple ways. Negative air pressure can cause exhaust fans and hoods to work harder than they need to, which can make them more likely to break down or need replacement sooner. Cross-draft from air pressure can cause unwanted air to drift into unwelcome areas. Ever eaten in a restaurant at a hotel where you can strongly smell the chlorine from the pool even though it’s on a different floor? That’s a result of bad air pressure.
Are Water Heater Explosions Real? Warning Signs and Prevention
Water heaters are 100% necessary these days, but dangerous when not properly maintained. If you’re concerned about the state of your residential or commercial water heater, ALWAYS contact a trained water heater technician.
Water heaters are generally very safe, especially when properly maintained. Just like your car or even electricity, water heaters are usually pretty safe and predictable when treated with the proper care and respect.
Why Would Anyone Rent a Water Heater?
Commercial water equipment is pricey! It can be much more so than the residential heaters found at hardware stores. Renting can be a wonderful solution to this. Renting alleviates the upfront cost of equipment and often install too—and replacement is included when the equipment fails.
But renting also includes ongoing service coverage on that equipment. And for businesses that depend on hot water to stay in operation, that ongoing service coverage is crucial, because their livelihood depends on having hot water available exactly when they need it. Unfortunately, a water heater will typically break down at the worst time: when it’s in high demand and stressed from constant use.
Correct Commercial Water Heater Sizing: It’s No Guessing Game
When you’re shopping around for a new or replacement water heater for your restaurant, hotel or property, size matters. Depending on how much hot water you need to run your business, there may be multiple sizes to choose from, but with so many options how do you pick what’s right for you?
This is very important because if the size is too small and you won’t have enough hot water to run your business, especially during peak operating times. But size too large and you’ll end up spending excess money in both upfront capital and long-term operating costs. Whether you run a restaurant, hotel, apartment complex, senior living facility, salon or fitness center—any business that depends on hot water needs the right water heater sizing and setup.
An easy way to get out of this Goldilocks dilemma is to with experienced and knowledgeable commercial water heater professionals: you’ll not only keep your customers, you’ll also save money across the board.
In the Know: High-Efficiency vs. Standard-Efficiency Water Heaters
Tankless water heaters can offer the highest efficiency potential, but they are more conducive to personal or private use and therefore are generally not considered very efficient in commercial applications.
This article is focused on tank-type water heaters – also called storage water heaters, these classic cylindrical tanks both heat and store the water, keeping it continuously hot and ready for use. Hot water is produced by burning fuel such as natural gas or propane, or using electricity, to generate the heat used to raise the water temperature.
Natural gas water heaters are still the most common, probably because they are generally more efficient than electric water heaters. Gas water heaters can heat the water to set temperature about twice as fast as electric heaters do, and cost about half as much to run as an electric unit.
Proactive Plumbing Maintenance Tips To Prevent Common Commercial Plumbing Issues
Modern plumbing is awesome. It’s just one of those things that pretty much everyone takes for granted. It’s also one of those things we immediately realize we cannot live without once it’s not working properly.
Being proactive about your plumbing is essential to the success of your business. Plumbing problems must be addressed immediately. Water damage is far more costly than proactively hiring a plumber to fix the problem immediately.
