HVAC
HVAC surveys, from rooftop plant to the last VAV box
Capture airside and waterside equipment, review nameplate fields, and check proposed relationships against the available drawings and field observations.
HVAC equipment survey software records the plant a building runs on — air handlers, rooftop units, chillers, boilers, pumps and terminal units — with each unit's ratings, refrigerant, age and location, plus the connections between them.
Two problems specific to HVAC
The first is volume. A building with a hundred fan coils or three hundred VAV boxes turns a survey into a counting exercise, and counting exercises are where duplicate rows and missed units come from.
The second is that HVAC is a system, not an inventory. An air handler on its own tells you almost nothing — the question is which zones it serves, which boxes sit downstream, and which loop feeds its coils.
What to capture by equipment type
01: Air handling units
02: Rooftop units
03: Chillers
04: Boilers
05: Pumps
06: Terminal units
| Equipment | Nameplate and rating fields | Relationships |
|---|---|---|
| Air handling units | CFM, external static pressure, coil capacity, motor HP, V/Ph/FLA | Terminal units and zones served |
| Rooftop units | Tons, refrigerant and charge, MCA/MOCP, heating input | Zones served; curb and rigging constraints |
| Chillers | Tons, refrigerant, compressor type, flows, kW/ton | Coils and loops fed |
| Boilers | Input and output MBH, fuel, efficiency, pressure | Heating loops and reheat coils |
| Pumps | GPM, head, motor HP, V/Ph/FLA, drive arrangement | Loop served and driving VFD |
| Terminal units | Box size, design airflow, reheat type and capacity | Parent air handler and rooms downstream |
Refrigerant is a planning input
Refrigerant carries scheduling weight that condition alone does not. Equipment charged with a refrigerant being phased down may require additional review of supply and servicing costs, even while the unit remains operational.
Capturing type and charge at survey time means the capital plan can be sorted by exposure as well as by age, without a second visit to read plates already photographed once. The HVAC checklist covers the field side.
HVAC plant, specifically
Why does refrigerant type matter on an HVAC survey?
Record refrigerant type and nameplate charge for servicing and replacement planning. Availability, current requirements and the equipment condition need separate review; refrigerant type alone does not set a replacement date.
How are terminal units handled? There can be hundreds.
Use consistent tags, locations and nameplate captures for each terminal unit. Review proposed connections against the plans and field observations, confirming which air handler and rooms each unit serves.
Can it tell a replaced unit from the original?
A different model or capacity under the same tag is a discrepancy to investigate. It may indicate a replacement, a document error or a mismatched record. Check the evidence before deciding what changed.
What about equipment we cannot reach on the day?
It stays on the unresolved list. Rooftop plant behind a locked hatch and fan coils above a hard ceiling are recorded as open items, so the survey's boundary is explicit and a return visit can be scoped against it.