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Can you name the industry that’s keeping your room comfortable right now and drives 100 billion dollars in revenue per year? If you guessed the HVAC industry, you’re right.
HVAC professionals have been servicing the needs of residential properties and businesses for as long as any of us can probably remember. As temperatures get more extreme across the globe, these heating/cooling pros are working harder and generating more money than ever.
That might beg some questions for you if you’re considering investing in business air conditioning. Namely, how much money are you going to have to contribute to that 100 billion dollars per year figure to get your company outfitted with a great system that will keep your customers and/or your employees cool?
In this post, our team breaks down everything you need to know to help answer that question. Keep reading to learn more!
Cost-Affecting Factors
While we’d love to quote you a flat price on how much business air conditioning is going to set you back, we can’t. That’s because several factors have an impact on cost when it comes to heating and cooling.
To help you formulate where on the cost spectrum you’re likely to fall, here are the primary elements that’ll be considered when arriving at your HVAC costs price point.
AC Technology
If you were to go into a commercial air conditioning store and asked for business air conditioning units, the first question you’d probably be asked is which technology you’re looking for. Air conditioning technology can get confusing, particularly to the laymen with very little insight into what’s going on in the AC industry.
To make things simple, there are units that blow constant air into your business without considering your building’s internal temperature (CAV systems). You also have systems that blow variable amounts of air into your business based on your desired temperature (VAV systems).
CAV systems are cheaper to buy but more expensive to run. VAV systems offer the opposite value proposition.
Unit Brand
Once you’ve decided on a CAV or VAV system, you’ll want to pick a brand that backs that technology. If you’re shopping at a brick-and-mortar store, chances are, they’ll carry two or three brands in either technology for you to pick from. Shopping online will give you more options.
Usually, the more well-known a brand is, the more you’re going to be charged for the privilege of using their system. Our advice to you is to not be swayed too much by brand marketing and to go with any affordable system that has good online reviews and a solid warranty.
Where You Work
The location of your business is going to have an impact on your business air conditioning rates just because the cost of living affects everything related to products and services.
Try buying an air conditioner in the Dakotas and then shop for that same unit in San Francisco. While not always the case, the higher overhead of the shopkeep in San Francisco means that you’ll pay more for the same item.
While price hikes on equipment may be nominal from place to place, if you’re buying thousands of dollars worth of AC technology, it may behoove you to buy out of your area and in more rural places to try and net discounts.
If you’re going to be investing in a professional install, costs for that will also vary based on where you live. You can read more here about professional HVAC installs and assistance.
Time of Year
The less busy your air conditioning installers are, the more willing they’ll be to cut you a deal on your installation. As you might imagine, HVAC specialists are the busiest in hot climates during the summer. In cold climates, winter is when they’re getting to most calls.
To avoid the highs and lows of HVAC demand so you can net the quickest and cheapest services, we recommend engaging your commercial air conditioning contact when the weather is the most moderate. Chances are, the team you contact during those times of year will be desperate to get appointments on their books.
Routine Maintenance
Air conditioners are not one and done installations. As anyone will tell you, these units tend to start losing their efficacy over time which warrants house calls, repairs, or at the very least, routine maintenance.
Our advice to you is to get maintenance done on your unit annually to avoid more costly repair visits.
How much maintenance and repairs will cost will depend on the scope of your job and your local market.
Energy Costs
Finally, the amount you’ll pay for business air conditioning will be deeply affected by how much your energy bills will run you each month. Those bills will be affected by your municipality’s rates, the size of your building, and how smart/energy efficient your unit is.
Energy bills can sneak up on you as being a silent destroyer of your bottom line. For that reason, we always advocate splurging on energy-efficient units because they’ll almost certainly save you more money in the long run.
You Now Know the Basics of Business Air Conditioning Costs
If you’ve gotten to this point in the post, you know all the key factors that are likely to affect your business air conditioning costs. It may be that you can scoop up a commercial AC for $1000, pay $250 for an install, and be all set for your 600 sqft business. If you’re trying to cool a warehouse in an expensive city, you could easily pay 20 times that much.
We hope you feel equipped to weigh the variables that will affect your install and welcome you to explore more advice on our blog for additional real estate and construction insights.
