How Often is HVAC Maintenance Necessary in a Commercial System?
If you own or operate your own business, you know how important it is for everything to function correctly, from your employee resources to your employees themselves. But did you know that environmental factors can affect how your employees work?
Why a Properly Maintained HVAC System is Important
Studies have shown that people given a set of tasks will complete them with differing efficiency depending on the air quality of the room they’re operating in. The people participating in these studies were directly affected by it, with those in higher air quality functioning more productively and those with lower quality functioning worse.
The temperature of a room can affect a person’s ability to do their work. Multiple studies have been done on this matter and attempted to determine the ideal working temperature. Researchers initially believed that working in relatively cold temperatures caused people to work better and be increasingly productive.
However, after further investigation, researchers found these effects were temporary, and working at a slightly higher temperature than originally believed yielded better results over time. In the end, the study determined the ideal temperature for a working environment was between 72 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit.
To keep these environmental factors within the ideal range, you’ll rely on your HVAC system. Your heating and AC system is bound for failure if that system isn’t in working order. How do you know how often you need to complete HVAC maintenance?
Figuring out How Often to Service HVAC Units
Your HVAC system needs frequent and consistently scheduled maintenance to work optimally. How often it will need maintenance varies from system to system, depending on several factors.
At the very least, it will need to receive scheduled maintenance twice every year. Spring and Autumn tend to be the two most strenuous times of year for an HVAC system, so it might be a good idea to schedule it during those two seasons.
HVAC System Age
This is mainly for newer systems. While there is no set age at which your HVAC system will start to require more frequent maintenance, they will need it more than twice per year, especially as they get older. This is particularly true if the systems withstand a lot of stress, such as filtering a particularly dusty environment.
HVAC System Usage
Another factor to consider is how much strain and demand you’ve put on your heating and cooling systems on a regular basis. Like we said before, the HVAC system handles most of the heating and cooling of any given area, so the more you use it, the more often it’ll need maintenance. If your business is in a large or poorly insulated building, your HVAC system will have to work even harder to heat or cool it, so that’s a factor you need to consider.
Building Lease Specifications
The leasing requirements for the building your business operates out of might be a factor, depending on what is specified. Some, if not most, of the things specified in any given lease are to protect the property from getting damaged, including HVAC maintenance. While we recommend getting your HVAC system serviced at least twice a year, some leases specify that you must get it done as often as once every quarter.
Environmental Stress
Different buildings and locations will inherently be tougher on an HVAC system and, more specifically, their filtration. All sorts of particles can get into the air that the HVAC system is in charge of keeping out, including dust, dirt, mold, mildew, pollen, and more. These things are harmful to breathe in, especially for people with preexisting breathing conditions.
Because of this, you can’t leave a dirty or ineffective filter in your HVAC system for too long. It won’t filter out these harmful particles, and they will just end up getting pushed back into the air as a result. If you know that there is more pollen, dust, or other particles in the air at your location than most places on average, you should probably get maintenance for your HVAC system done more often.
HVAC Yearly Maintenance Costs
The price you’ll pay annually to get the proper maintenance done for your HVAC system relies on who you hire and how often you have them come in. On average, each maintenance visit will cost anywhere from $50 to $150, with $70-$100 being the average.
That may seem like a lot, but the cost of skipping routine maintenance can be much higher. It can cause worsened health issues for people with breathing conditions, but it could also impact them in other ways. It can also decrease indoor air quality (IAQ), leading to lower productivity and worse health for all of your employees.
Get SimpleFM to Manage HVAC Maintenance
Having trouble keeping track of your maintenance schedule? To ensure that nothing slips through the cracks, you need a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) like the one offered by SimpleFM. Facility maintenance is easy when you use SimpleFM. Contact us today!
