Very important according to Steve Jones of ROSAHL: from both cost and performance perspectives, maintenance is often a hidden cost when purchasing equipment.
When going out for competitive tender we find price, delivery, quality and suitability for purpose are all considered and specified. However, maintenance and the related cost is usually ignored: firstly it is difficult to quantify; secondly it complicates the tendering process, and lastly maintenance is a different budget from capital expenditure. Accountants consider net buying prices, ROI, hurdle rates and NPV. so why not the lifetime cost?
Consider for example a large electric motor: in a high duty application the lifetime running costs far exceed the original purchase price. It makes sense therefore to consider energy efficient motors and variable speed drives. The initial cost is higher but the payback time is invariably less than two years. The same is true of dehumidification.
Compared to heat pump and compressor driven dehumidification systems the running costs of the ROSAHL solid-state dehumidifier appears almost insignificant. It has the added advantage of needing no drainage system and therefore no cleaning. It can also be compared with many desiccant based systems as there is no requirement to service the system and thus no maintenance cost over the lifetime of the equipment.
As the cost of skilled maintenance staff and associated overhead costs increase, maintenance free has huge advantages. It is important.