During the cold, frigid winter months, the HVAC system of your commercial building becomes an even more central component of daily building operations. For building occupants, the winter months may mean significant decrease in comfort – and for businesses, the cold weather almost certainly will result in heightened HVAC energy costs.
Advantages of Reducing HVAC Energy Costs
There are a number of advantages to carefully managing energy costs, and not all of them have to do with monetary gain. Taking actions to reduce HVAC energy costs offer significant benefits to the overall health and performance of your commercial heating and cooling equipment, resulting in extended system life and increased energy efficiency.
To get the most out of your commercial HVAC equipment in the long term, it pays to establish and maintain effective energy saving strategies. Below are three ways building and facilities managers can save in HVAC energy costs during the peak winter season.
Replace Air Filters and Clean Air Ducts / Vent Systems
Depending on the specific needs and requirements of your commercial building, your system’s air filters should be changed regularly. Aim to replace air filters every quarter to ensure you’re getting the most out of your filtration system.
Additionally, air ducts and vents should be inspected and cleaned regularly to limit the amount of dirt, dust, and other debris that travels throughout the building. By ensuring clean equipment, your HVAC system will not need to work as hard to distribute clean, filtered air throughout your commercial building and regulate temperature, resulting in lowered HVAC energy costs throughout the winter season.
Install Programmable Smart HVAC Technology
Smart HVAC technology, such as programmable thermostats and other monitoring devices, offer important insights that are helpful for increasing commercial building HVAC efficiency.
Through these insights, building and facilities managers achieve higher-level overviews of elements such as temperature and humidity, granting them better control over the performance of the heating system, which is crucial to ensuring the system isn’t overworking and further contributing to increased HVAC energy costs.
Perform an Energy Audit through Commercial HVAC Maintenance
When building and facilities managers lack information related to how, when, and where energy is being consumed within their commercial building, efforts to reduce HVAC energy costs can be counterproductive. By arranging for a comprehensive energy audit by a commercial HVAC technician, managers gain insight into how seasonal shifts in energy use affect HVAC energy costs during the peak winter season.
If the performance of your commercial heating and cooling equipment seems to be deteriorating, or if HVAC energy costs seem abnormal compared to previous years, an energy audit can help bring these issues to light.
For help establishing a commercial HVAC preventive maintenance plan that works for your corporate building, or to learn more about how you can prolong the life of your heating and cooling equipment while achieving lower HVAC energy costs, contact the Donnelly team today.
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