Temperatures are already rising, which means that office energy bills are set to soar. Keeping your workplace cool is essential to minimise hay fever symptoms, increase air flow, maximise the efficiency of both workers and computers and reduce the incidence of illness spreading through the office. Most importantly, it’s important to keep you cool. You might not like it, but air conditioning is a necessary evil. However, that doesn’t mean you have to shell out a fortune. Here are five tips to keep your building cool yet energy efficient this summer.
Tip #1: Update Your HVAC Set Points
Set-points are the temperatures at which you set your heating, ventilation and air conditioning to maintain the internal environment of your building. Increased temperature set-points in summer reduce energy use as the air-conditioning doesn’t have to work as hard to keep you cool. For every 1°C change, cooling costs fall by 5-10%, so if your typical set-point is 22°C, try raising it to 24 or 25°C. This will still provide an adequate level of comfort, and will help to reduce the incidence of employees sat shivering beneath air-conditioning vents.
Tip #2: Review HVAC Run-Times
The summer means a flood of bank holidays, so make sure that your control systems are up-to-date and the air-conditioning isn’t running when employees are out of the office.
Conversely, it’s also a good idea to keep an eye on the weather forecast, so that you can start running your HVAC earlier on days where a heat wave is expected. If you know that you’re going to experience a week of soaring temperatures, running your air-conditioning system from earlier or for longer will stop the heat building up, avoiding the need for the system to work extra hard to cool the building back down.
Tip #3: System Efficiency
Ensure that your air conditioning system receives regular hvac services and is checked by a local a/c repair contractor to make sure that temperature sensors are properly located and fans, filters and ducts are properly cleaned. If your system is old and inefficient, consider upgrading to make significant long-term savings on your energy bills. For the best offers and the system which is most well-suited to your building, try contacting a specialist commercial air conditioning supplier like Pure Air Conditioning. If you need ac tune-up in Stillwater, OK area, make sure to contact a local hvac company for professional commercial hvac services.
Tip #4: Reduce Heat Emitted by Lighting
LED lights are increasingly cheap, can reduce energy use and are one of the coolest lamp types, meaning that they also inadvertently reduce air-conditioning costs. This means that by switching to cooler running lights the heat load which the air-conditioning system has to deal with is minimised. If you were already considering a lighting upgrade, trying adding in the air cooling energy savings you’ll make when assessing costs and you’re guaranteed to be sold on the idea.
Tip #5: Review Shading and Blinds
A major source of heat in commercial buildings comes from light spilling through glazed doors and windows. This can contribute 50% of unwanted heat gain during summer. Most modern buildings will have been designed with double glazing and low emissivity glass, active or passive shading systems and window coverings like blinds to reduce heat gain, so make use of them. It’s important to ensure that windows systems are properly maintained and working, and that all staff know how and when to use blinds to keep heat out. If you don’t have a good shading system, make sure that you invest in one.
If you have the resources and an outside area, try planting some trees. Studies have found that tree planting can reduce heat gain by 25%, and trees provide an enormous benefit in improving the amenity and appearance of your building.
Tip #6: Consider Solar Power
Like LED lighting, the cost of roof-top solar panels has fallen dramatically, and pay backs usually take less than 5 years to accumulate. If your building is a suitable candidate for solar panels, have them fitted. As well as the obvious benefits, they have been shown to have a cooling effect as they act as extremely effective rooftop insulators. The panels work as shades which prevent the sun radiating directly onto the roof, and the heat is removed by air movement between the panels and the roof.
