In the business world, it’s nothing less than common sense to ensure that when and where possible, all expenses are minimized or perhaps even avoided. The less you can get away with spending on any given thing at any given time, the more you save and thus the more you make by way of profits. However, there will always be those areas which may appear on the surface to constitute areas for potential savings, but are in fact perfect examples of false economy.
A perfect example to illustrate the point would be that of LEV Testing or duct maintenance in general – something that’s often overlooked as something that’s largely optional. As is the case with so many things in life, it’s common for businesses to wholly ignore the health and general maintenance of their extraction and ventilation systems until something goes wrong…and very wrong at that. Sadly, running in such a way would be a bit like never bothering to take your car for an oil change, only to then complain when the whole engine seizes up and is rendered worthless.
So, just to put the subject into some kind of perspective, here’s a quick look at just a few of the reasons why ignoring duct health and maintenance is guaranteed to come back and bite you in the rear end:
Bigger Repair Bills
As mentioned, it’s only ever going to be a matter of time until the ducts are unable to look after their own health anymore and thus end up pretty much falling to pieces. It’s one thing to pay a modest sum to nip a small problem in the bud, but it’s another entirely to have to pay out a small fortune to remedy what could prove to be a catastrophic failure. The longer you leave your ducts and extraction systems to their own devices, the bigger the eventual bill will be when the proverbial hits the fan. With regular maintenance on the other hand, large-scale repairs can be avoided altogether.
More Frequent Repairs
Along with the severity of the repairs, it’s also fair to say than when and where you neglect the health of your extraction systems you’re 100% guaranteed to find yourself having to repair them on a more regular basis. Even if the repairs needed aren’t necessarily major, the fact that you’re having to call in the pros for a patch-up job time and time again will soon add up to both a huge expense and an even bigger headache. It really isn’t worth the trouble – especially when considering that periodic maintenance can eliminate all such problems and will cost significantly less.
Poor Efficiency of Operations
Next up comes the way in which an inefficient extraction and/or ventilation system is always going to cost more to run than a system working to its maximum possible efficiency. Going back to the car comparison again – it’s a bit like comparing the fuel consumption of a brand new car in perfect condition to an old banger that’s pretty much clinging onto its last shred of life. The latter will naturally gobble up fuel and pump out all manner of nasties just to do the same job as its counterpart, which costs less to run and is so much more eco-friendly to boot.
Workforce Comfort and Efficiency
Never forget that a happy workforce tends to be both a motivated workforce and a workforce that works much harder to reach targets and generally get the job done. Needless to say, a workforce that isn’t provided with a comfortable working environment courtesy of quality dust extraction and ventilation isn’t going to be quite as happy as you may like it to be…period.
Potential Health Risks
Still on the subject of the workforce, it’s worth remembering that poor air quality or unacceptable workplace temperatures will inevitably lead to higher and more frequent bouts of sickness that will ultimately cost your business a fortune in lost output. It’s hardly a secret that nothing at all matters more than looking after the health and wellbeing of workers – how can you expect to do this if you don’t provide them with healthy air to breathe?
Legal Headaches
Last but not least, following on from the above point you might want to bear in mind that if you do end up making your employees sick due to the inefficiency of the ventilation systems you have in place, there’s a pretty strong chance you’ll find yourself up for the chop in court. You might get fined, you might get shut down or in the worst case scenario you might end up going to prison – all of which could have been avoided with the oh-so simple regular maintenance.