If you’re a building manager or owner, it’s likely that you know a rough estimate of how much you spend on repairs, maintenance, and service for your HVAC system.

Depending on the status of your HVAC system, these necessary costs can run up quite the tab. And unfortunately, the expenses don’t stop there.

We’ve laid out 5 additional costs to owning and operating your HVAC system.

In-house Staff

Maybe you manage a multi-tenant building. If this is the case, it’s likely that you have an employee who spends a portion of their workweek listening to and addressing tenant concerns. Some of these concerns probably overlap with your HVAC system.

At the end of the day, this boils down to time. 

How much time has your employee (or employees) spent dealing with these issues, and what does that equate to in total payroll costs? This could easily end up costing your business hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars every year.

Administration

Let’s say you do have an HVAC system that’s more needy than others. This could mean that your employees are regularly encountering HVAC issues and hunting down contractors, bids, invoices, project contracts, appointments, and more.

Again, how much time does this take from your employees and how much is costing your business in payroll every year? And what better activities could your employees be focusing on? Activities that could be making you money as opposed to spending it… 

Productivity

If your building can’t maintain the appropriate temperature and struggles to preserve good indoor air quality, your employees or tenants will be uncomfortable and less productive. This is a fact and is among the top concerns of office workers.

A survey  shows that heat and cold are the top two complaints for office workers. And studies prove what is a matter of common sense to most employees: if it’s too frigid or steamy, you are not going to be able to get as much done.

We all know that a loss in productivity means a loss in time and money. But exactly how much time and money does this mean for your business?

Energy

Unsurprisingly, one of the top money wasters of HVAC systems is energy. If you’re attempting to operate and maintain your HVAC system in-house, then you may not have direct access to someone who understands how to minimize energy waste. 

There’s a lot that goes into this component — from updates to automation to reporting. If you’re not careful and if you’re not on-the-ball, you could be spending considerably more money than you have to spend.

Capital Avoidance

For a true annual cost analysis, you need to factor in the annualized cost of future replacement for your HVAC equipment. This requires an analysis of age, condition, and current replacement costs. 

If you’re not factoring this into the total cost of owning and operating your own HVAC system, then you’re going to be in for a big surprise at some point in the future. For many building owners and managers, this point often comes much sooner than they realize.

Do you need help understanding the total cost of your HVAC system?

Give us a call or send us a message today. At BMI Mechanical, we’ve spent the last several decades helping companies all across the West Coast better understand, operate, and maintain their HVAC system. As a result, we’ve helped them save money and create a better indoor environment for their tenants and employees.