At the forefront of GOING GREEN in the Air Conditioning Maintenance and
Refrigeration Industries across South Africa

The O3 Philosophy

Going GREEN means conserving our natural resources more efficiently. In our industry we use far too much water!

O3 has always been concerned about the quantity of water used when rinsing off after a clean. Most Contractors do this with a hosepipe. A 20mm hosepipe pumps out 80 litres of water per minute. To give some idea of what this means: It takes approximately 30-35 minutes to rinse off a 3m x 2m coil. At 80 litres per minute, that’s 2500 litres!

Using the 50 litre Trade Air compressor, with a 1 litre pot attached to a paraffin spray gun, we used less than 20 litres!

In the case of HVACs, we use no tap water at all!

O3 has developed a range of coil and refrigeration cleaners, which are powerful, and yet non-corrosive. No matter how often they are used, they will never attack coils or fins, whether they are made from aluminium or copper.

Not only are they non-corrosive, but they also leave a protective film to help extend the life of the units on which they are applied.

It is a given the chemicals used to clean AHUs , chillers, condensors are concentrates, which can be diluted up to 15 times.

To help offset the throat-wrenching smell as the chemicals remove mould, bacteria, and fungi, we have added a pleasant fragrance to our chemicals. They are also extremely cost-effective. And they qualify to be at the forefront of the GOING GREEN campaign.

How O3 Ensures Effective Coil Cleaning

Dirt and grime, which contains mould, bacteria, and fungi removed from an AHU by O3 chemicals.
We insist on doing readings before and after each clean. We do comparative checks after each clean to see whether the programme is maintaining the required levels.
The O3 Programme will transpose the "before" and "after" figures onto an image of a coil so that the technician, and the contractor can see where there may be a problem which may need attention

How effective?

We aren’t interested in being told a coil is clean. We want to know how clean? The best way to assess the results of a coil clean, is to measure the improvement in airflow. We insist on doing airflow readings before and after each clean.

We do comparative checks after each clean to see whether the programme is maintaining the required levels.

Therefore it is imperative that we teach technicians how to use an anemometer. Nothing is left to chance in the drive to reduce energy and water consumption.

How Much?

We believe it is essential a contractor knows in advance what the cost of chemicals will be for a contract - before any work is started. The O3 Programme  will do this.

It even details the cost of the different types of chemicals needed for the job. But more than this.

We start by identifying the building in which the work is being done. We ask the contractor to identify where the building is situated (town and street address).

We then link GPS co-ordinates to building.

We can then:

• Link GPS co-ordinates to building.
• Link the Contractor to building
• Link the Technicians who are working on the site.
• Link Landlord/Owner’s name to the building.
• Link the Facilities Management to building.

In addition we:

Link the Contractor – his name, ID number, and contact number to building

link the Technicians – their names, ID Nos, and contact numbers.

Link Landlord/Owner’s – their name, and contact number.

Link the Facilities Management – their names, and contact numbers to building.

The next step is to get a copy of the asset register of the building.

From this we will identify all the units in the air con system.

Finally we ask the Technician to take the measurements (length x width) of the AHUs. This enables us to work out a chemical budget to clean the units

We use O3 SmartAir and O3 SmartFinish to clean HVACS, hideaways, consols, and cassettes.

Find out more about the O3 Programme in this presentation.