Top 3 Hidden Costs of Your Business's HVAC System
For any business, an HVAC unit is a crucial piece of equipment. Whether you’re operating in an office building or restaurant, it’s important to create a comfortable atmosphere throughout the year. Yet, not all HVAC units are created equal, and yours is likely wasting your business money and hurting your bottom line. Here are the top reasons your HVAC is costing you.
1. Poor efficiency drives up energy costs.
The average HVAC in the U.S. is 10-15 years old, with many being even older. These outdated units tend to fall behind when it comes to efficiency, meaning they consume a lot of energy any time they’re being used. When you’re running a business, you can’t simply turn off your HVAC to save money—as it’s essential to keep your customers and your employees comfortable.
But that lack of energy efficiency is costing your business a lot of money. High energy consumption means high energy bills, and with energy prices consistently on the rise, your HVAC may be causing your monthly energy spend to skyrocket. Upgrading your HVAC to a more energy-efficient model is an easy way to reduce your energy consumption and drive down your utility bill.
"Many business owners don’t realize how much their outdated HVACs are costing them,” explains Eddie Chavez, Director of Product Management at Lennox Commercial. “Great strides have been made in HVAC technology in recent years, and newer, more efficient models use only a fraction of the energy. Upgrading old equipment helps businesses reduce their energy spend immediately after installation.”
Plus, newer models come with additional cost-saving features, like smart thermostats that allow you to control temperatures, create timers and settings, and monitor equipment for any issues—all via an app on your phone or tablet.
2. Down time hurts your business and employee productivity.
As with any piece of equipment, sometimes HVACs malfunction and need repair. When they do, you’ll be subject to down time, where your unit’s not able to run—costing you in a few ways.
Especially during extreme weather conditions, down time means your employee productivity may dwindle, since working in an uncomfortable environment is distracting and naturally causes things to slow down. Worse yet, you’ll likely lose customers as well, as they’ll seek out competitors with more regulated temperature. These losses can be extended, as you may face long wait times for repairs and part replacement.
Preventative maintenance is key to avoiding down time. When you proactively monitor your equipment, you can identify and solve small issues that arise before they become catastrophic and lose you business and money.
3. Unplanned replacement will cost you thousands of dollars—unless you partner with an EEaaS provider.
Even with preventative maintenance, though, outdated HVAC units are sometimes beyond repair, meaning you’ll have no choice but to replace them. Current increasing equipment and labor costs make replacement a high investment and if not prepared, can be a devastating expense to a business.
Plus, there is high demand for new HVACs, causing supply chain issues that result in long wait times for new units. That means the down time you experience will be even further drawn out, losing you money in addition to the investment spent for the new equipment.
Luckily, partnering with an EEaaS provider can help you avoid both the upfront investment and down time.
“We provide no-cost energy-efficient HVAC replacements for our clients, so they don’t have to spend any capital to get brand new equipment” says Bill Lynch, VP of Business Development at Budderfly. “Our partnership with Lennox helps our clients save money as well, as we are able to reduce supply chain delays and save our clients on costly down time.”
Budderfly’s partner program provides no-cost HVAC equipment and installation, as well as proactive monitoring and maintenance to help avoid and solve any issues that arise.
Want to learn more? Attend our upcoming webinar on Nov 10th to get more info about energy efficiency and Budderfly’s no-cost equipment replacement program that includes HVAC, LED lighting, refrigeration, and more. The webinar will also feature industry experts, including Lennox’s Eddie Chavez.