If you heat your home or office in the winter with an electric wall heater and cool it in the summer using fans, you are probably not getting adequate ventilation to have a healthy indoor environment. Changing out the stale air inside for fresh air drawn from outside is essential in order to cleanse the indoor environment and reduce levels of pollen, dust, bacteria and other allergens present in the air. These indoor air contaminants will accumulate over time unless adequate ventilation is provided. One solution to the ventilation problem is the use of HVAC units to heat and cool indoor spaces.

By their nature HVAC units ventilate as they deliver heated or cooled air, regulating both air quality and temperature at the same time. Of course, ventilation can be provided by something as simple as opening a window, but that does nothing to help maintain the indoor temperature at a consistent, comfortable level. So-called “natural” ventilation has another disadvantage in that outdoor air in its natural state might not be contaminant free. This is particularly true for office buildings or homes located in or near industrial areas of cities, where the chemical content of the air, including levels of carbon dioxide, can be alarmingly high.

HVAC units draw in fresh air but pass it through filters to help remove the most common sources of contamination. This means that you will get additional oxygen inside to replace the stale air you’ve been breathing, but you won’t be breathing in the smoke and moisture that might have been present in the air before it was filtered. HVAC units are available for both residential and commercial applications, and as you might expect, there is a wide range of equipment available. Consequently, the price range also varies widely. Some of the things that can heavily influence costs include the number and size of the refrigerated coils in the cooling part of the system, the size and power rating of the fans used to circulate air, and the number of ducts required to bring air throughout the building being served by the HVAC units.