As winter wanes and spring beckons, proactive office owners will normally take a couple of measures to slash back their cooling bills in a bid to avoid overspending in the coming warmer months. Here are some of the tips to ward off a high-priced energy burn this year that you could borrow.
- Use a Circulating or Ceiling Fan Together with an AC
If employed properly, the wind-chill effect obtained via a ceiling or circulating fan can make your office feel at least six or seven degrees colder while only costing you half the costs. You see, using a fan in combination with an air conditioning unit helps in dispersing the cooled air a bit more efficiently meaning that the AC unit won’t have to do as much forced convection work compared to when not using a fan.
- Maintain and Service your Office’s Cooling Systems
It’s not enough to invest in a pricey energy-efficient AC unit or an automatic programmable thermostat. For maximum gains in slashing back your cooling bill this year, you still have to maintain your equipment and keep it in excellent working order. Dirty AC filters, for instance, can block your system’s airflow and cause it to work harder than it has to just to cool your office. Replacing or cleaning your filters at least once a month can cut back your monthly AC costs by at least 15%.
- Run Your Office’s Cooling System Economically
Rather than set your AC to the highest possible cooling setting, try to optimize the difference between the outside prevailing temperatures and the most comfortable working temperature that your office could use. This way, you will be keeping the temperature disparity between the two entities as low as possible thereby minimizing the overall cooling costs.
- Close Blinds, Shades, and Curtains at the Height of Summer
You’d be pleasantly surprised at how efficient curtains, shades or blinds can be at preventing the worst of solar heat from heating up your office. If anything, just by keeping your blinds drawn at the height of summer can slash back your overall daily heating costs by 45% since your premise’s cooling system won’t have to work as hard to extract the heat gained from the sun’s scorching heat rays.