Spring is a critical time for commercial HVAC maintenance for a number of reasons. As today is the Spring Equinox, the first official day of Spring 2018, it’s important to understand what’s required of commercial HVAC systems come Spring.

In the Spring, pollens, molds, and viruses start to become a serious issue. Spring is allergy season and being exposed to these allergens can cause serious discomfort or even illness for those with allergies. Indoor air quality is vitally important in the Spring, and, fortunately, it’s entirely attainable for anyone willing to put in the effort.

Most Important Commercial HVAC Maintenance Items for Spring

Ideally, every Spring a building will request a comprehensive review of all the HVAC systems. The non-stop, daily use of your commercial heating and cooling system causes build-up over time of contaminants including dust particles, bacteria, and allergens. Out of all the possible maintenance items, duct cleaning or sealing and an indoor air quality assessment are two of the most important tasks.

An indoor air quality assessment is the first step to identifying underlying issues for indoor air quality. Commercial HVAC experts can identify any source of indoor air pollution coming from your HVAC system and propose a remedy for the situation. Without understanding what’s causing poor indoor air quality, you can’t achieve good indoor air quality.

As for duct cleaning and sealing, ducts naturally collect dust and debris, including molds and pollens. Cleaning ducts prevents these potentially dangerous allergens from polluting indoor air. Sealing ducts as needed improves energy efficiency while helping prevent further indoor air pollution.

Benefits of Good Indoor Air Quality

Studies show that good indoor air quality, along with proper temperatures and humidity, reduce illness and sick days while increasing employee productivity and happiness in the workplace. Tenants have a vested interest in good indoor air quality, which means building owners and facility managers should too.

Proper indoor air quality even helps acquire new tenants through referrals from happy tenants, who are more easily retained in the first place if their work or living environment is satisfactory.

Striving towards great indoor air quality makes good business sense. There are many different benefits of good indoor air quality, but the bottom line benefits are some of the most appealing.

Spring is the most important time for duct cleaning and sealing, as well as indoor air quality assessments. With harmful allergens and other pollutants starting to become a serious issue, now is the time to complete your Spring commercial HVAC maintenance items.

Yet, when it comes time to make a big change in an HVAC system, some homeowners have switched from a furnace to a heat pump. A heat pump is an electrically powered system that operates on the same principle as a split system air conditioner, and uses the same set of ducts to distribute air. The difference between a heat pump and an air conditioner is a heat pump can work as both a heating and cooling system by switching the direction of operation.

If you’re considering replacing your furnace this year, a heat pump might be on your list of possibilities. But is it the right choice?

The Case in Favor of a Heat Pump

If your home doesn’t use natural gas power and your current furnace is an electrical model, then making the change to a heat pump is a fantastic idea. Heat pumps are also electrically powered, but in heating mode they consume far less energy than a furnace. This is because a heat pump uses electricity to move heat from one place to another, rather than create heat by running a current through heating elements. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a home can save $300 or more annually with a heat pump compared to an electric furnace.

Choosing a heat pump for a replacement is even better if you have an aging air conditioner that’s ready to retire as well. You’ll have your heating and cooling needs taken care of in a single installation. Heat pumps do cost more than either a furnace or standard AC alone, but when a heat pump replaces both, it’s a much more cost-friendly solution.

When you have concerns about using a gas-powered heater because of safety reasons, then a heat pump is also a great choice.

The Case Against a Heat Pump

A gas-powered furnace is much more capable of handling low winter temperatures than a heat pump, which can struggle with efficiency when temperatures drop too low. So if you already have a gas furnace and you aren’t also considering putting in a new AC as well, it’s probably best to stick with a new natural gas furnace rather than chancing to a heat pump. Gas furnaces are still among the most energy-efficienct units available, and with newer technology you can have a high-efficiency unit installed as a replacement that will lower your bills even further.

If that happens, contact a professional heat pump repairman for help.

Why would emergency heat mode run up your energy bill? To understand, we need to briefly cover how a heat pump works

How a heat pump works and how it relates to em heat

Your heat pump can heat your home in 3 ways:

• Moving heat– In heat mode, your heat pump is like an air conditioner working in reverse to pull heat from the outside to inside your home (the opposite of how it works in cooling mode).
• Electric heat strip– This electric heat strip is auxiliary heating (or “aux heat” as it shows up on your thermostat). It comes on automatically to help heat your home when your heat pump struggles to pull in heat when it’s below 40 degrees F outside.
• Backup gas furnace– Many homeowners use their gas furnace in place of the electric heat strip for auxiliary heat at lower temperatures.

It costs more to use the auxiliary heat, especially the electric heat strip since it runs off electricity. That’s why energy.gov says heat pumps are more efficient in milder temperature climates—they don’t need to use the heat strip or gas furnace as often.

“Emergency heat” means constantly using the backup heat

Switching your thermostat to emergency heat is you telling your heat pump this:

“Hey, stop trying to pull in air from outside. Just use your backup heat.” Your heat pump gladly complies. But now your heat pump basically works either as an electric furnace, which costs more to use than a heat pump, or it’s using the backup furnace.

The backup furnace works more efficiently than the heat strip, but less efficient than the heat pump pulling in heat.

Either way, you don’t want to switch over to emergency heat just because it’s cold outside. Your heat pump will use the auxiliary heat on its own to supplement heating your home.

When to use emergency heat

Only use it…in a heating emergency! Make sense, right?

Use emergency heat only if your heat pump isn’t heating your home at all. That’ll keep you warm until a professional heat pump contractor can come repair it.