Summer has been and gone, and the colder months are nearly upon us. The winter season has been particularly difficult for many in the past couple of years due to the cost of living crisis. Staying warm is more expensive than it should be, but it can be more affordable than you might think.
If you own an office building, there are ways to reduce costs without making life difficult for your tenants. Let’s explore how to effectively save money on energy bills this winter.
1. Seal Gaps For Better Insulation
A commonly overlooked way to cut costs is sealing gaps around windows and doors, along with wall and ceiling junctions. Not only do these gaps allow air to come into an office space and make it chilly, but it also means that the central heating system has to work harder to replace lost warm air.
You can hire a professional sealant company to seal these gaps. Here’s a breakdown of how this will reduce energy bills:
- Professionals like Strathclyde Sealants will be able to identify the tiniest gaps and make sure everything is sealed.
- With the installation of professional applications, office gaps will be sealed with long-lasting airtight seals to keep your building well insulated and reduce the workload on your heating systems, cutting energy costs.
2. Optimise Heating Systems Further
Sealant helps take the burden off your heating systems, but there are ways in which you can optimise the latter even further.
Here’s how:
- Schedule regular heating maintenance checks to ensure that boilers and radiators are working at optimal efficiency.
- Use programmable thermostats that match office hours so that the system isn’t left running when the building is empty.
- Divide office spaces into separate zones with individual thermostatic controls so that unused areas aren’t heated unnecessarily.
- Position radiator reflective panels behind radiators to direct heat into the room instead of letting it escape through walls.
- Insulate heating pipes to prevent hot water from losing heat as it moves from the boiler to the radiators.
3. Install Energy-Efficient Lighting
Both fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs are commonly used, but when it comes down to long-term affordability and efficiency, they pale in comparison to LED bulbs.
There are numerous benefits to LED lighting:
- LED light bulbs use approximately 80% less energy than incandescent ones, and up to 60% less than fluorescent light bulbs.
- They have a lifespan of up to 50,000 hours, significantly more than the respective 1,000 and 8,000-10,000 of incandescent and fluorescent bulbs.
- They offer a clearer and more natural light appearance, which can be helpful for tenants in regards to their focus and comfort.
Not only does LED lighting enhance office appearance, making it more likely tenants will want to use your space, but it also massively reduces energy bills specific to lighting.
4. Install A Business Energy Management System
The installation of a business energy management system enables you to closely monitor the office building’s energy usage.
A BEMS can help you reduce energy bills by allowing you to do the following:
- Tracking energy consumption across various applications, including heating, appliances, ventilation, and lighting.
- Identifying energy waste, for example, heating running outside opening hours or lighting left on in empty spaces.
- Some BEMS even have the capability to utilise AI to understand usage patterns and provide automated adjustments to help the user limit energy bills.
5. Effectively Insulate The Roof
Due to heat naturally rising, the roof is an area where warm air escapes without effective roof insulation. Your office building can lose lots of heat if it’s poorly insulated.
By preventing heat from escaping this way, boilers and radiators are needed less frequently, which reduces outgoing bill costs.
How to insulate an office roof properly:
- Select the right insulation materials for your roof type. Fiberglass batts are suitable for pitch roofs, while rigid foam boards are ideal for flat roofs. Make sure it aligns with the recommended R-value for your climate to maximise efficiency.
- Ensure your roof structure is dry and install the insulation snugly, leaving no gaps or compression.
- You may need to install vapor barriers on the warm side. Maintain proper ventilation in attic spaces to prevent the buildup of moisture that can damage both insulation and roof components.
Conclusion
An increase in energy bills is a given when transitioning from the warm, long days of summer towards the colder months of winter. Notwithstanding that, we hope that this list will help you save some cash.
Implement these techniques to limit your expenditure, while still ensuring your tenants have a comfortable space to work in.
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