As a business owner in Charleston, South Carolina, you’re constantly working to minimize spending and maximize efficiency. It’s relatively simple to look at employee productivity and company spending to discern where you can maximize your budget. But many business owners neglect to account for an important factor in spending and efficiency: their office’s commercial HVAC system.
Every moment that your system is running, it’s costing money and playing an important role in your office’s environment. Take control of your budget by taking control of your HVAC system’s efficiency and improving indoor air quality.
Influences Your Monthly Costs
When your HVAC system is running efficiently, it’s nothing to worry about. It’ll maintain comfort and indoor air quality without wasting your utility costs.
Without proper attention, though, your system will operate inefficiently. As a result, it’ll raise utility costs and impact the productivity of your office. Those increases in utility costs may seem incremental at first. But over a year, they will add significant expenses to your budget.
Many factors can contribute to system inefficiency. If your system’s size is not properly fitted to the size of your office space, the system will either short-cycle from being too large or strain excessively because it’s too small. Both of these will result in reduced system lifespan and crippled efficiency.
Without maintenance, small problems can lead to more damage and cause your system to break down. Keeping your thermostat setting too high in the winter, even though you may like it cozy, causes unnecessary strain and cuts efficiency as well.
Moderates Indoor Air Quality
Your HVAC system does more than maintain temperature in your office; it also moderates your indoor air quality. You may not have to pay bills for indoor air quality. But if your system is failing to maintain indoor air quality, you and your employees can become ill and less productive. Less productivity means wasted money. Since you and your employees likely spend most of your work time in the office, indoor air pollution is dangerous.
One way your system attempts to keep your air healthy is by filtering the airflow before it passes through the ductwork. Over time, the filter that air passes through will clog with dust and other particles and will require replacement.
If you haven’t replaced your filter, your system must strain to force air through the clogged filter. This will further decrease inefficiency and prevent the filter from adequately filtering your air. If you want to ensure even greater indoor air quality than your standard filter can provide, consider installing an air purifier, which cleans your air more effectively.
Affects Employee Productivity
Physical spending may directly affect your budget, but your budget is also impacted by the work you get out of the employees you pay. This means you need to provide them with the comfort and healthy air they need to do their best work. Doing so can be difficult when your system is struggling to act as efficiently as it should be.
A study from Cornell University revealed that office temperature plays an important role in employee productivity. Over a month-long study, the temperature in an office was raised from 68 degrees Fahrenheit to 77 degrees. Although the temperature initially rose, errors decreased and productivity increased. When the temperature was pushed higher than 77 degrees, productivity started to fall again. In regard to the study, Cornell’s Alan Hedge adds that the comfortable office saved employers $2 an hour per employee.
Your commercial HVAC system can make or break the comfort and health in your office and, as a result, your budget. To improve your budget with HVAC maintenance, call Berkeley Heating & Air Conditioning at (843) 277-6030.
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