If you own or operate a commercial building in Sioux City, IA, or the surrounding area, you probably already know that your building’s HVAC system needs regular maintenance to keep it working well. Delaying maintenance often leads to costly, avoidable repairs. Here are seven great benefits of commercial HVAC maintenance.
1. Maintaining Your HVAC Energy Efficiency
The secret to running a profitable commercial building is cost control. Regular commercial HVAC maintenance can help you with that. On average, a commercial building’s HVAC system accounts for about 35% of its total energy consumption. Therefore, the more efficient your building’s HVAC is, the less you’ll spend on energy overall.
A neglected HVAC system, however, won’t run as efficiently as it should. Even something as simple as a dirty air filter could impose an efficiency penalty as high as 15%. On top of that, your HVAC system’s moving parts need regular cleaning and lubrication to work as intended. During a commercial HVAC maintenance appointment, your HVAC technician will take care of those things and more, restoring your system’s efficiency in the process.
2. Improving Indoor Comfort
The purpose of your building’s HVAC system is to keep its occupants comfortable. That comfort—or the lack thereof—plays a role in the profitability of your building. If your tenants feel that your building’s HVAC isn’t working well, they’ll be more likely to start looking for more comfortable space to lease elsewhere.
Regular commercial HVAC maintenance addresses this in two ways. First, it helps to keep your building’s HVAC system operating reliably. Second, though, it guarantees that you’ll have an expert’s eyes checking your HVAC system periodically. A trained HVAC technician can spot many common signs of HVAC trouble before they get bad enough to affect your building’s comfort. Then, you can take appropriate preventative action before an HVAC problem impacts your tenants.
3. Improving Indoor Air Quality
Your commercial building’s indoor air quality can be a key selling point to prospective tenants. This is because healthy indoor air lends itself well to high productivity among workers. According to a study in 2015, cognitive scores among workers in buildings with low concentrations of volatile organic compounds in their air were 61% higher than those in the average building. Plus, increased ventilation made an even bigger difference, with workers scoring 101% higher in such buildings.
Your building’s HVAC system plays a pivotal role in your building’s air quality. If you have additional features like air purifiers, it also can serve as a primary line of defense against contaminated air. This can help commercial tenants and their customers from spreading airborne illness in some cases.
Building HVAC can also be the primary means of ventilation in some commercial buildings. If this is true for your property, keeping your system clean and in top condition will improve the building’s air quality by reducing indoor pollutants like VOCs.
4. Increases the Lifespan of Your HVAC System
On average, you can expect your building’s commercial HVAC system to last between 10 and 15 years. However, regular maintenance can extend that lifespan to 20 years or more. That means regular maintenance might double your HVAC system’s lifespan under certain circumstances. With a new HVAC costing somewhere between $22 and $27 per square foot on average, every extra year you can get out of your HVAC can save you money. Over the lifetime of your building’s HVAC system, regular maintenance appointments are a small price to pay to achieve maximum returns on your HVAC investment.
5. Prevents Costly Breakdowns
In a commercial building, every HVAC breakdown is an emergency. That means anything you can do to avoid breakdowns can save you a great deal of money. Regular commercial HVAC maintenance does exactly that. On each maintenance visit, your HVAC technician will test and inspect your HVAC system’s major components.
After their inspection, they’ll compile a list of any components with unusual wear and tear or that are close to reaching their expected lifespan. You can use this information to create a proactive plan to keep your system running reliably. This information also lets you budget for a replacement long before you need it. After all, replacing an aging HVAC component on a predetermined schedule costs far less than it would during an emergency service visit.
In many cases, subscribing to an annual maintenance plan comes with additional cost savings as well. Many HVAC companies offer a discount on services if you are a part of the annual protection plan.
6. It Satisfies Your Equipment Warranty
Just about every kind of expensive appliance or infrastructure comes with a warranty to provide you some peace of mind. Commercial HVAC systems are no different. However, most HVAC warranties require that you stick to a recommended maintenance schedule. And if something goes wrong with your HVAC system, its manufacturer will ask for your service records to prove that you’ve satisfied the warranty conditions.
If you can’t show a history of regular maintenance, the manufacturer won’t honor the warranty. This means that they will not cover the cost of a replacement part or a repair that they otherwise might have. You can consider regular commercial HVAC maintenance appointments a kind of inexpensive insurance that keeps your HVAC system warranty in force and protects you from costly repairs.
7. It Protects Your Property From Damage
Regular commercial HVAC maintenance also protects your property from damage it might suffer during an HVAC malfunction. This is especially important if your building relies on roof-mounted HVAC equipment. When those units malfunction, they may begin leaking in a way that can damage your building’s roof. If such a malfunction goes unnoticed, water could pool around the unit and begin infiltrating your building. Then, you’d have two emergencies on your hands—and two large bills to go with them. Regular commercial HVAC maintenance drastically reduces the odds that a leak will occur or go unnoticed.
Malfunctioning HVAC equipment could also pose a fire hazard to your commercial building. Since a commercial HVAC system draws significant voltage while operating, any short circuit or damaged wiring could spark a fire. Regular commercial HVAC maintenance appointments include thorough inspections of your system’s electrical connections and components, giving you peace of mind that your building isn’t at risk of a fire caused by its HVAC system.
Your Commercial HVAC Maintenance Specialists
For over 100 years, Kalins Indoor Comfort has offered reliable HVAC services in Sioux City and its surrounding area. That includes commercial HVAC services like system installation, maintenance, and repair. We’re proud to be a Lennox Premier dealer. We have had this designation for over 70 years, making us one of the oldest Lennox partners in the nation. When it comes to customer satisfaction, Kalins Indoor Comfort is unbeatable, having earned thousands of five-star customer reviews. We can also help you with your residential heating and cooling needs too, in addition to offering indoor air quality, thermostats, and fireplace services as well. If you need a commercial HVAC partner to help you with your commercial HVAC maintenance needs, contact the experts at Kalins Indoor Comfort today!
