The purchase price is often a key decision factor on selecting materials for building and building services maintenance and particularly when pressure on cost saving is increasingly posed on the building operation and maintenance practitioners. This phenomenon will sometimes distort the picture of actual operating cost impact and lead to a decision that impairs cost effectiveness of building operation.
TCO gives a true picture that detailed all costs associated with use of air filters over their life. The initial filter purchase cost can be as low as less than 10% of the total operating cost for HVAC air filtration. Air side installations of a HVAC system, mainly fans, consume approximately 5% of all energy used in a commercial building. Utilizing air filters that have low initial pressure drop and low rate of change of pressure drop over their life, can have a meaningful impact on this energy consumption. In addition, filters that last longer can be replaced less frequently, thereby reducing storage, disposal and shipping costs, and potentially, saving labour and / or service costs.
There are five components of the Total Cost of Ownership for HVAC filters:
In certain HVAC systems, the cost for the energy required to move air through the filters is often the greatest component of total operating cost. This energy cost is proportional to the average pressure drop of the filter over the time period assessed. The difference in energy cost of two different filter systems is proportional to differences in their respective average pressure drops.
There are several scenarios where tremendous reduction in energy may be achieved by using NanoFIL HVAC filters that are currently under development:
1) when replacing filters with higher pressure drop,
2) when replacing filters which do not maintain low pressure drop over time and
3) when replacing a pre-and primary filter combination, wherein the combined pressure drop is much higher.
As an added benefit, the reduction in energy use from lower pressure drop filters results in a reduction of CO2 emissions from power plants.
The cost associated with the labor of taking used HVAC filters out of the air handling unit (AHU), installing new filters, ensuring sealing of the individual filters to minimize air by-pass, and transporting the used filters to the disposal site, are referred to as labor cost. Nanofil Filters, which are designed and engineered with high filtration efficiency and low pressure drop may last longer than alternative competitive products.
The cost of filter disposal is influenced by many factors including volume, weight, and metal content.
The cost of shipping filters is partially determined by the key factors of filter volume and change-out frequency.