If you happen to own a business, of any size or sort, you need to be aware of how important the air is that you and your employees breathe. It won't take long to discover the facts about both indoor and outdoor air quality, as well as the benefits of having a quality HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, A/C) unit in place to constantly clean the air throughout the day.

Let's face the question directly: How clean do you think the air is that you breathe in your building every day? Leaving aside the general air quality in your city or region, just think about how many employees you have that are shedding billions of microscopic skin cells and producing millions of airborne germs every minute on a daily basis. Think of other important factors as well, like the items that occupy space in your building-carpets, flooring, fabrics, wall treatments, even countertops-and consider the fact that they can give off their own pollutants, not to mention the glues and sealants used in their construction.

It all adds up

To complete the picture, now you can consider the air from outside, too. If you think about it in an orderly fashion, you will see that the air that is inside your building originated from the air outside your building. This means that all of the pollens, dust, mold spores, chemicals and sometimes even the insects are dwelling inside your building. All that gets added into the "ecology" of your business. (Yes, your building is its very own unique environment.) All of these things link together to create a breeding ground for germs, a staging area for viruses, a launching pad for disease.

With all of these facts to consider, it is simple to make the argument that an HVAC system is the only way to eliminate the contaminants inside your building. HVAC systems have the ability to clean the air and continue to maintain healthy air quality year round. It also provides the building with the heating and air-cooling systems, so that there is no need to have other capabilities installed separately. A complete system also humidifies, dehumidifies, filters and distributes the air within the building.

Maintenance is key

Cleaning and maintaining your HVAC system is an important element in assuring that it continues to run properly and work for you. In this case, "working for you" means continuing to supply clean, fresh, filtered and microbe-free air up to the stated specifications of the system. However, no system can work for long without regular maintenance. Keeping the system clean, from intake to outflow, will remove the greatest possible number of microbial contaminants that will try to breed in the building. Without all of the dirt, dander and dust to feed off of, the microbes die out. Changing filters is the first and best step in this process, but cleaning ducts, intakes and outlets is also necessary.

Without the microbes in the air, there are fewer instances of respiratory illnesses, and therefore you are eliminating the accompanying loss of production within the company. A cleaner environment means there is less employee absence. Cleaning the HVAC system, beginning with the filters on a regular basis but other components as required, will also serve as a way to establish a baseline for better indoor air quality. This way, any future inspections of the system will prove that your regular maintenance is sufficient in providing healthier and better air quality for the buildings' occupants for many years to come.

Bottom line is health, safety and savings

HVAC systems can be quite cost-efficient for energy bills as well. On average, looking at all ages of installations, an HVAC system accounts for about 60 to 70% of a building's energy use. According to reports from the U.S. Department of Energy, some of the new energy-efficient HVAC systems can actually decrease the high energy costs of obsolete systems by about 30%. Many businesses pay a lot of money for their energy bills every month. This is usually due to poor HVAC maintenance, an older system or the simple fact that an HVAC system has not been put in place (or replaced when it broke down). Also, many business owners can feel as though they can't afford to pay to have the systems cleaned. The costs of dirty air, however, are far higher, in lost productivity, medical costs and a building's "livability."

It is extremely important to keep an HVAC system clean at all times. While the cost to hire a professional HVAC cleaning contractor might be high, it is the long-term savings that will more than pay for their services. Overall, an HVAC system not only helps to maintain a better air quality for your building but it also ensures the health of every occupant of that building. Although, it might be a costly investment to some, the long-term cost of dealing with sick employees outweighs the cost of simply installing and maintaining a proper HVAC system. It's time to look into just how clean the air in your building really is. You might discover that you are in the presence of many harmful airborne microbes and not even know it. Now, does that sound healthy to you? Does it sound like good business?