Coolclean is a Melbourne-based company that specialises in cold cool room and cooling equipment hygiene cleaning. Their primary focus is on food safety, food quality, increasing produce self-life, cooling performance, energy cost savings, and dependability. They have developed problem-solving expertise over the last 33 years, offering their customers cost-effective solutions along with important detailed service reports for food safety auditing.
In today’s fast-paced world, maintaining a healthy environment is of paramount importance. One crucial aspect that often goes unnoticed but plays a significant role in ensuring indoor air quality is the air handling unit (AHU). An air handling unit is a vital component of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, responsible for circulating and conditioning the air within buildings. However, over time, these units accumulate dirt, dust, mould, and other contaminants, negatively impacting indoor air quality and overall system efficiency.
This is where Coolclean comes into the picture, offering comprehensive cleaning and maintenance solutions to promote clean and healthy indoor air. To dive deeper into the air handling unit cleaning, we had the opportunity to chat with Grant one of the Coolclean business manager.
Grant has over 25 years of experience as a food & beverage production hygiene specialist, cooling tower and cooling system manager, heavy industry, light industrial, power generation and commercial institutional applications. Was a qualified air conditioning and refrigeration mechanic with the air force so knows HVAC as well.
Understanding the Air Handling Unit (AHU)
The Air Handling Unit (AHU) is a crucial component of commercial Buildings like hospitals, distribution centres, airports, and schools’ HVAC systems. Its primary function is to circulate and condition the air within a space, ensuring a continuous supply of fresh, filtered, and temperature-controlled air. air handling units consist of various components, including filters, coils, fans, and dampers, all of which work together to regulate indoor air quality and comfort.
The Role of Air Handling Units in Indoor Air Quality
Before delving into the importance of air handling unit cleaning service, it is vital to understand the crucial functions air handling units perform in maintaining indoor air quality:
Air Circulation: air handling units facilitate the distribution of conditioned air throughout a building, ensuring that all areas receive an adequate supply of fresh, temperature-controlled air.
Air Filtration: Equipped with filters, air handling units trap and remove airborne particles, such as dust, pollen, allergens, and microorganisms, preventing them from recirculating within the building.
Humidity Regulation: air handling units help maintain optimal indoor humidity levels, which is vital in preventing mould growth and ensuring comfort for occupants.
Temperature Control: They play a pivotal role in cooling or heating the air, maintaining a consistent and pleasant indoor temperature.
Importance of Air Handling Unit Hygiene Cleaning
Over time, air handling units accumulate dirt, dust, debris, and even moisture, providing a breeding ground for harmful contaminants and microorganisms. Grant explained Several reasons why regularly cleaning your air handling unit can benefit you, your staff, and your business:
Improved Indoor Air Quality
Regular air handling unit cleaning is directly linked to improved indoor air quality. By removing accumulated pollutants, allergens, and microorganisms, the air that circulates within the building becomes cleaner and healthier. This, in turn, reduces the risk of respiratory issues, allergies, and other health problems among occupants.
Energy Efficiency
Dirty air handling units tend to work harder to provide the same level of conditioned air, this increased strain leads to higher energy consumption and, consequently, increased utility bills, after 5 years, a non-cleaned air handling unit can use up to 50% more electricity. A clean air handling unit operates efficiently, reducing energy consumption and resulting in cost savings.
Extending Equipment Life
Proper maintenance and cleaning of air handling units extend their lifespan. Dust and debris accumulation can lead to mechanical issues and premature wear and tear, which can be costly to repair or replace. Routine cleaning helps avoid these problems and ensures the longevity of the equipment.
Mould Prevention
Stagnant water and accumulated moisture within air handling units can promote mould growth. Mold spores, when released into the air, can cause respiratory problems and allergies. Regular cleaning eliminates moisture pockets and prevents mould growth, thereby promoting a healthier indoor environment.
Compliance with Health and Safety Standards
In many commercial and industrial settings, compliance with health and safety standards is mandatory. Regular air handling unit cleaning ensures that buildings meet these requirements and provide a safe environment for occupants and employees.
Why choose Coolclean for your Air Handling Unit Hygiene Cleaning
While some building managers/owners might attempt DIY cleaning of air handling units, it is advisable to hire professional air-handling unit cleaning services like Coolclean for the following reasons:
Improved air handling unit reliability
The correct cleaning of heat transfer surfaces reduces breakdowns. The majority of breakdowns are due to the system not being cleaned properly. Often the unit is not broken, it is simply dirty.
Specialized Equipment
Cleaning air handling units requires specialized equipment that professional services possess. They have the necessary tools to disassemble the unit, clean individual components, and put everything back together correctly.
Qualified Coolclean technicians
The Coolclean technicians carry specialist equipment to perform work efficiently, to minimise impact on your operation. The cleaning process includes the application of an anti-microbial biocide, which is endorsed by HACCP and CSIRO to effectively remove contaminants. Their technicians are fully trained, and HACCP qualified to safely restore unit efficiency in food-related areas.
Environmentally friendly cleaning
Avoiding the use of cleaning chemicals in food-related areas makes perfect sense. As part of their standard clean, the food-safe biocide is environmentally friendly, pH neutral, non-corrosive and fully biodegradable.
Optimised cooling performance
By cleaning and treating the coils and surfaces, the Coolclean service restores units to ‘as new’ efficiency, where performance improvements see the correct airflow and temperature maintained.
Repairs and upgrades
Coolclean supplies modern PVC air intake louvres that block-out sunlight from the exterior air intakes without greatly reducing the air velocity into an air handling unit. Easily retrofitted to an air intake, they reduce sunlight and in turn, reduce bacteria and mould growth inside the air handling unit. They offer specialised coating systems to salvage badly corroded fan housings, basins, sumps, and pans. Water sealing systems is another service offered to stop water damage to plant rooms.
The Air Handling Unit Hygiene Cleaning Process
Coolclean is HACCP Certified for air handling unit hygiene cleaning service.
Coolclean follow strict work processes to carry out air handling unit disinfection cleaning and protection. Their technicians are fully qualified in HACCP standards and practices.
Included in Coolclean’s service
Coolclean uses advanced residual microbial biocide to safely clean and protect units from bacteria and mould. Much more than just the superficial cleaning of internal surfaces, their technicians use custom equipment to penetrate the coils, hygienically cleaning without causing equipment damage.
Their service includes:
- Dismantling units and chemically disinfecting and protecting the air intake grills, fans, heat and cooling exchange coils, doors, and inside and outside surfaces.
- Cleaning of the interior, air intake grills, fans, ducting, air dampeners, and exterior of the air handling unit.
- Cleaning of the cooling and heat transfer coils using power washing techniques.
- Disconnect and flush drain lines.
- Clean and flush the condensation drip trays. Fit a condensate pan tablet to control mould and other contaminants.
- Clean surfaces surrounding doors and seals.
- A comprehensive service report is provided, together with pre- and post-clean photos.
- Compliant with AS/NZS1668.2 and AS/NZS3666.2
Make sure your air handling unit is in the hands of the industry specialists give Grant or the guys at Coolclean a call! Coolclean are the experts and are always looking out for their clients, providing the highest quality service possible and always making sure that Hygiene and health are always front of mind.
