You might be responsible for two central air conditioning systems — one in your home, and another in your office or workshop. Perhaps you’ve been diligent about taking care of the air conditioner you rely on for personal comfort after a long day of work, but what about the one you and your employees depend on to provide fresh, clean air during business hours? Many business owners are more reluctant to call for commercial air conditioning repair than they are to call a service technician for help in their own homes. They reason that commercial AC repair is going to be more expensive than a residential service call, and they put off the responsibility. However, it’s important to note that there are ways to prevent the costs of commercial AC service from spiraling out of control. Keep reading this article, and we’ll show you how you can afford to keep your commercial cooling system in reasonable shape.
Do You Really Need Commercial Air Conditioning Repair? Hint: You Do
We’ll be blunt: if you have an air conditioner in your commercial building, you need to take care of it. There’s no alternative. Some business owners believe that they’ll save money by neglecting to call in contractors when their system needs work or is due for a routine checkup, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, when you put off necessary service and maintenance for your cooling equipment you all but guarantee that you’ll face steeper costs in the long run. It’s not saving money — it’s moving payday a little farther ahead, often for a substantial fee.
Why does putting off commercial air conditioning repair end up costing more money? Simple: air conditioners are intricate, interconnected systems with many components that depend on each other to perform their functions reliably. Refusing to fix a relatively small problem with one of them almost always results in trouble with the rest — and once multiple components start to fail, the costs involved with putting your air conditioner back in any kind of working order take an astronomical leap upwards.
The biggest myth commonly associated with the price of repairing a commercial air conditioner is that it’s significantly more expensive than repairing a residential one. That’s not strictly true — in fact, it’s normally only more expensive because people take better care of the air conditioners in their homes. If they maintained their commercial AC systems with the same kind of regularity, the costs they’d face would be much more comparable to those of repairing a home AC system.
When is Commercial AC Repair More Likely to Be Expensive?
That said, there are certain ways in which commercial AC repair may incur higher costs than those associated with maintaining a residential system. Firstly, it is important to note that commercial systems differ from residential ones in several important ways:
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- Commercial air conditioning systems tend to be more powerful than those used in most residential homes. After all, a residential system only requires cooling capacity enough for the area of a single home — a commercial system must draw enough power to keep an entire building cool throughout.
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- Commercial air conditioning systems have more extensive ductwork than most residential systems. Think about the number of rooms in an office building relative to those in a small home. Ductwork must reach every room that requires cooling, so in a commercial setup, there’s likely to be a lot more of it.
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- Commercial air conditioners typically have multiple thermostats, whereas residential systems generally only have one.
- Commercial air conditioning units generally have more complex drainage systems than those found in residential buildings, since there is more air flowing through their ducts and more condensate that must be expelled from the system as a result.
Reducing the Price of Repair for Commercial Systems
The factors listed above can require contractors to spend more labor hours to resolve problems than they would normally have to for a residential system. However, savvy business owners can reduce the time contractors must spend on their systems by entering into long-term service contracts with a trustworthy group of licensed HVAC professionals. Long-term service contracts ensure that the same person or team of people will visit your facility whenever your air conditioner needs service, allowing them to become familiar with the specifics of your system over time. As such, they will grow more efficient in their work with each subsequent visit, and the time they save will translate into relative savings for you.
You’re going to need commercial air conditioning repair at some point during the lifetime of your unit, and the sooner you arrange for it, the less it’s going to cost. Save even more money and enjoy a comfortable space sooner when you entrust the long-term maintenance and repair of your system to licensed professionals with an outstanding reputation for working on commercial systems.
Check with us here at Valley Comfort Heating and Air, our customers love our attention to detail and our friendly, affordable service. (707) 539-4533
Valley Comfort conducts air conditioning installation & repair services in the following communities: Santa Rosa, Napa, Rohnert Park, Healdsburg, St Helena, Calistoga and Windsor
