Determining Equipment Service Life

States that equipment service life information is useful for many purposes for both consumer and manufacturers. However, most data currently available in the open literature is in reality average age at replacement information, whereas service life is always longer than average age at replacement, sometime substantially so. Demonstrates that opinion surveys cannot be used to gather true equipment service life information. Explains how scientifically valid equipment life studies can be performed if records are available showing where and when equipment has been installed and if a method can be devised (such as postal or telephone surveys) to determine when the equipment has been replaced. Data from equipment life surveys can often provide many insights about replacement decisions, which is useful for equipment design and marketing purposes, as well as being informative to end users. Presents an example simplified life study. Notes that Committee TC 1.8 is attempting to devise a method by which an ASHRAE database on equipment maintenance and replacement information can be established and maintained on an ongoing basis, with voluntary inputs in a standardised information from ASHRAE members.

Citation: ASHRAE Journal, vol. 42, no. 8, August 2000



Product Code(s): D-6037