One of the most common arguments against commercial HVAC maintenance is “I don’t need another HVAC expense”.
While it’s true that an HVAC maintenance plan adds another line item to your annual budget, it actually helps lower all of the other costs associated with your HVAC system. In this post, we’re going to break down how much HVAC typically costs for commercial properties and how a maintenance plan helps to cut those expenses way back.
What Is the Typical Annual Cost Associated with a Commercial HVAC System?
For starters, there are different factors that affect how much your HVAC system costs you. For example:
- Type of property you own/run
- Size of your HVAC system
- Age of your HVAC system and parts
- Local labor rates
- Date of last maintenance inspection and repair
But let’s talk about the typical annual costs to keep your HVAC running for a mid-sized facility.
Labor and service will generally run you $2,000 to $3,500 annually.
Parts and consumables will cost between $1,000 and $2,250 annually.
Energy-related costs will be anywhere from $1,500 to $4,500. This usually comprises about 40% of your property’s total energy bill.
And in the case of emergencies, you’re looking at a $1,000 to $3,000 tab for each emergency call.
None of this accounts for what happens if your property has to shut down while your HVAC systems are repaired or replaced. So, if you’ve experienced downtime when your commercial HVAC stops working, go ahead and add that to the tab as well.
On the low end, you’re looking at about $5,500 in annual expenses and on the high end $13,250.
This is the general cost to reactively maintain your HVAC system. This means responding to issues only when they arise.
How Preventative Maintenance Lowers Your HVAC Expenses
If you’re looking at that expense range and thinking “I can’t afford to shell out even more money for HVAC”, you’re not alone. A commercial maintenance plan can cost anywhere from $500 to $2,000 a year. So when property owners or managers hear that quote, it can be kind of shocking.
But preventative maintenance isn’t like insurance where you pay for it and might never use it.
Your preventative maintenance service guarantees you at least two visits from your HVAC partner every year. During these visits, they perform a full system and electrical inspection. Maintenance is included as well. This includes:
- Adjustments
- Calibration
- Alignment
- Cleaning
- Tightening
There are other services that can be included in a preventative maintenance plan, so this is not an exhaustive list.
Here’s how these visits decrease your HVAC-related costs:
Parts & Consumables
With your system tuned up a couple times a year, it keeps your equipment from falling into disrepair. For example, you can avoid problems like these:
- Reduced airflow through your filters
- Drive belt fan failure
- Compressor damage
- Capacitor failure
- Low refrigerant and reduced cooling
By keeping all these parts in good working order, the cost of parts and consumables will come down from the high of $2,250 to $1,000 each year (if not more).
Regular maintenance will also extend the life of your parts so you won’t have to shell out for brand new equipment so frequently.
Energy Inefficiency
Unmaintained parts make the whole system have to work harder. This is often why HVAC is so hard on your energy bill.
But with an HVAC service technician visiting your property a couple times a year, they’ll make sure the following gets done:
- Cleaning of filters, coils, and blowers
- Refrigerant levels topped off
- Moving parts lubricated
- Leaks closed up/repaired
- Drain lines flushed
- And more
A commercial maintenance plan should be comprehensive enough to ensure everything remains in tip-top shape. (If you’re not sure if your HVAC provider has you covered, review this list of maintenance tasks.)
With everything fixed up a couple times a year, you could see those energy-related costs shrink from the high end of $4,500 down to $1,500 a year.
Labor & Service
You’ll save money on labor as well. Your preventative maintenance plan already covers the cost of labor. By scheduling multiple inspections throughout the year, you won’t have to schedule as many service calls for repairs or emergencies outside of these visits.
This could effectively take your service-related costs down from $3,500 to $2,000 (or less).
Emergencies
The beauty of preventative maintenance is that it enables your HVAC contractor to detect and resolve issues before they become disruptive events.
That said, not every emergency can be accounted for or avoided. Even so, preventative maintenance can make these events cheaper for a number of reasons.
For starters, a dedicated HVAC partner will know your system inside and out, so they can get it fixed quicker than others. What’s more, a preventative maintenance plan usually includes not only emergency 24/7 service, but also priority service. So your facility won’t have to experience lengthy downtime (if any at all) while you wait for assistance.
The Cost-saving Benefits of Planned Commercial HVAC Maintenance
Let’s say you’re spending about $13,250 on average on your commercial HVAC system every year. You’re eager to cut these costs.
By adding a $1,500 maintenance plan as a line item to your expenses, you’ll exponentially reduce your HVAC costs.
This is because the $1,500 doesn’t sit on top of the $13,250 you were spending every year. It improves the operation and efficiency of your HVAC system, removing the need for frequent service calls and repairs while also decreasing the chances of a costly and disruptive emergency.
In our experience, customers end up saving anywhere from 15% to 25% annually with a preventative maintenance plan.
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