COMMERCIAL HVAC IN SALT LAKE CITY

Residential HVAC and commercial HVAC overlap on the nameplate but diverge in practice. Commercial equipment is larger, runs longer duty cycles, costs more to repair, and has far less tolerance for downtime. When a residential furnace fails in a house, one family is cold for a night. When a 10-ton rooftop unit fails at a strip-mall restaurant in January, the owner is losing $2,000 to $8,000 a day in closed revenue plus the gas bill they're still paying. Commercial HVAC customers buy speed and reliability as much as they buy the equipment itself.

We run a separate commercial crew for exactly this reason. Different truck inventory (larger motors, commercial capacitors, contactors, belt-drive parts), different licensing (commercial HVAC certifications, forklift and rooftop-safety rated), and different dispatch priority (commercial no-cool or no-heat calls route to the commercial queue, not the residential one). Accounts we maintain on preventive maintenance contracts get service windows measured in hours, not days.

Commercial equipment we service

Rooftop package units (RTUs) — the workhorse of commercial HVAC. Gas/electric or electric-only, 3 to 25 tons, combined heating and cooling in one rooftop cabinet. We service every major brand: Trane, Carrier, York, Lennox, Rheem, Daikin, Bryant, ICP. Most of our commercial work is on RTUs.

Split commercial systems — outdoor condenser and indoor air handler, larger than residential. Common in office buildings, professional suites, and older commercial retrofits. Same diagnostic approach as residential but scaled up — 5 to 20 ton compressors, variable-frequency drive blowers, commercial-grade controls.

Commercial boilers — hydronic heating in larger buildings, apartment complexes, schools, medical offices. Gas-fired cast iron or high-efficiency condensing, 200,000 to 2,000,000 BTU. Staffed by our hydronic specialists.

Make-up air units (MAU) — critical for restaurants, commercial kitchens, and manufacturing. Balance exhaust hoods by bringing in tempered outside air. Frequently overlooked on PM contracts, first thing to fail on a busy summer night.

VRF / VRV systems — Mitsubishi City Multi, Daikin VRV, LG Multi V. High-end zoned systems for newer commercial builds. Specialized service — requires factory certification.

Building automation systems (BAS) — thermostat and control integration for larger buildings. Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Tridium. We integrate with existing BAS; full BAS installs partner with specialized controls contractors.

Preventive maintenance contracts

The single highest-value commercial HVAC decision most building owners make. A proper PM contract gets your equipment inspected and serviced twice a year (pre-summer and pre-winter), catches 80% of failures before they become emergency calls, and guarantees priority dispatch when something does fail. PM customers skip the regular service queue on hard-freeze and heat-wave weeks — which is exactly when every commercial operator needs service.

We structure PMs by number of units and complexity. Typical small commercial (single 5-ton RTU) PM runs $485 to $785 per year for two scheduled visits. Larger accounts (10+ RTUs across a property) price per unit with volume discounts. Contract includes filters, belt inspections, combustion analysis on gas-heat units, refrigerant checks, electrical testing, and written reports. Repairs at PM customer rates are typically 10-15% lower than non-contract emergency pricing.

Emergency commercial service

24/7 commercial dispatch with a dedicated after-hours commercial line. Restaurants, multi-family buildings with tenants, medical facilities, and data centers are always priority. After-hours surcharge on commercial is $145 to $245 depending on truck configuration needed (basic RTU vs. specialty crane/forklift work). Repair pricing is the same as business hours — no emergency multiplier on the work itself.

Common commercial repair calls

• No cooling on RTU — compressor, contactor, capacitor, or refrigerant issue. $485-$1,850 typical
• No heat on gas/electric RTU — igniter, gas valve, flame sensor, or control board. $385-$925
• Belt-drive blower failure — belt, bearings, or motor. $485-$1,250
• Economizer stuck or failed — outside-air damper actuator or controller. $385-$685
• Variable frequency drive (VFD) failure — $1,250-$3,500 depending on unit
• Rooftop unit refrigerant leak — detection, repair, and recharge. $685-$2,850
• Commercial boiler low water cutoff — safety device, must pass code. $485-$985
• Make-up air unit burner — $685-$1,850 depending on cause

What Valley does differently on commercial

We keep a commercial manager on-call who talks through larger repairs and replacements with the owner before we execute. For equipment over $5,000 on a single repair, we provide a written repair-or-replace analysis including expected remaining life, current efficiency vs. a modern replacement, and financing or lease options for new installs. Commercial owners appreciate this kind of math — they're running businesses, not guessing at HVAC longevity.