Maintenance is a process or a series of tasks undertaken to keep something running in optimum condition. Likewise, maintaining electrical systems in homes, businesses, and industrial setups is absolutely essential to ensure your devices and equipment can continue running smoothly for years to come.
There are two common types of electrical maintenance: planned and reactive. Both ensure your electrical equipment and devices are functioning well and supporting productivity, but the right choice between these electrical maintenance and repair options depends on how you’d answer this question:
Are you willing to wait for a problem to occur or prevent it from happening in the first place?
Here, we’re weighing up the differences between planned electrical maintenance and reactive electrical maintenance, helping you to choose the right option for your needs.
Planned or preventative electrical maintenance consists of tasks scheduled and agreed upon in advance, which are carried out on equipment over a fixed duration. This regular form of maintenance can help identify potential problems and resolve them before they become more expensive to deal with.
For example, a commercial business enters into a contract with a maintenance firm for planned electrical maintenance and repairs for a year. The pre-planned maintenance jobs may include scheduled inspections, circuit testing, replacing worn-out components, and updating outdated systems.
Large commercial spaces such as data centres, industrial setups, and commercial properties often opt for planned electrical maintenance schedules.
The advantages of planned maintenance include:
Regular maintenance and repair activities keep your systems and equipment in top condition for longer.
Firms with licensed electricians that carry out preventative maintenance activities are compliant with the latest laws and regulations for homes, businesses, and industrial setups.
Regularly maintained systems are more energy-efficient, leading to reduced energy consumption and lower energy bills.
Unexpected breakdowns result in unplanned downtime, affecting your business’s productivity and profit, but this is less likely with planned electrical maintenance schedules.
Major breakdowns and repairs are less likely to occur when your electrical systems are maintained regularly, which can help you save on repair costs and maintenance expenses.
Planned maintenance also reduces the likelihood of large-scale, dangerous, and catastrophic failures of your equipment, keeping your staff safe.
The setbacks of planned maintenance include:
Your business needs to plan for preventative maintenance well in advance, creating an electrical maintenance and repair schedule that meets your business’s needs.
Signing up for planned electrical maintenance attracts a high initial cost compared to other maintenance strategies.
Reactive or emergency electrical maintenance is when you address electrical maintenance and repairs only when issues occur. Here, you allow your business or facility to operate as usual and only fix anything when it’s broken.
For example, if you run a manufacturing plant, you’ll call an emergency repair electrician only to fix sudden power outages, short circuits, or equipment failures.
The benefits of reactive maintenance include:
When you opt for reactive electrical maintenance, you simply respond to the issue as and when it occurs.
Unlike planned maintenance, you don’t have to spend money and time in advance on an electrical maintenance schedule. You only pay when you need to rectify a problem.
The setbacks of reactive maintenance include:
Without routine electrical inspection and maintenance activities, your equipment and facilities may be vulnerable to maintenance issues that impact your productivity and revenue in the long run.
Emergency electrical maintenance means you’re only reacting when an issue crops up, which can result in a lump sum cost to fix the issue. The cost of reactive maintenance depends on how quickly the problem can be fixed and the cost of materials and labour.
Sudden breakdowns and maintenance call-outs can prove expensive, causing huge, unplanned downtime during the electrical maintenance and repair of vital equipment or facilities.
Your business’s profit will suffer when you’re dealing with unexpected repair costs, affecting your bottom line. You may have to completely stop operations to address a severe problem while major repairs are undertaken.
Now you understand the pros and cons of electrical maintenance services and what sets them apart, you might have already guessed which option is the most affordable.
On the surface, reactive maintenance may seem like a budget-friendly option, allowing you to pay for repairs only when something is broken, saving you from making any upfront electrical maintenance costs.
But while choosing reactive maintenance may seem cheaper in the short term, it can easily be more expensive in the long run.
There’s no way you can anticipate electrical issues, and fixing them on time is subject to the availability of replacement parts and the availability of the right skilled professional for the job. Plus, not regularly maintaining your equipment might lead to compliance issues with laws governing health and safety at the workplace, and your business could be fined or face legal action.
A comprehensive planned electrical maintenance schedule follows the principle of “prevention is better than cure”. Addressing problems before they occur will save you from having to fork out unexpectedly for expensive repairs or lose profits due to unplanned downtimes.
While both of these electrical maintenance services have their advantages and disadvantages, for your business operations to run smoothly, it’s better to be prepared than to leave it to chance.
Oaktree Electrical recommends a planned electrical maintenance schedule for businesses to avoid the uncertainties associated with electrical fires, wiring faults, and related electrical uncertainties.
Our team of licensed electricians follow a comprehensive maintenance schedule, from regular testing checks to upgrading outdated equipment.
Contact us today on 01322 552888 or email office@oaktree-electrical.co.uk to learn more about our electrical maintenance and repair services.