Boosting Commercial Building Energy Efficiency: Five Tips

We chug Kool-Aid with our comrades at The Building Advisor: Like those of us at Octus, they're immersed in the contemporaneous opportunity to immediately and perpetually slash energy use and costs in commercial, industrial and municipal buildings. Here's how our colleagues commenced a recent post:

So, you want to increase your commercial building’s energy efficiency. You’re finally convinced that efficiency is the first fuel, that 40% is too much for commercial buildings to suck out of the US’ total energy production, and that the benefits of increasing efficiency reach not only the environment but to your business’ bottom line.

Said differently, you've applied common sense, logic has prevailed, and you're ready to take action (but, perhaps, you're not prepared to crank the throttle on your energy efficiency investments). What to do? The Building Advisor proffers five get-it-done-now tips:

1. Curtail overventilation – The number one culprit in the fight against energy waste. Lucas Klesh wrote a comprehensive post on overventilation here, soon to be accessible on Sustainable Facility. He goes into detail on the value of a property functioning economizer and damper system.
2. Adjust lighting schedule – Does your lighting schedule match your tenant schedule? Matching the two more closely allows you to get the most out of the energy usage when you need it.
3. Eliminate competing HVAC systems – As crazy as it sounds, many buildings run heating and cooling systems simultaneously. What’s even richer is that mechanical service providers often aren’t aware that this is happening. Stop your building from fighting with itself and reap the benefits in your utility bills.
4. Re-evaluate HVAC when space configuration changes – Have you downsized your staff? Put up a wall or other internal partition in a large office area? If there are unoccupied areas of your property or changes in your space configurations, most likely your HVAC systems aren’t up to par for the changes made. Re-assess the space’s needs by evaluating control points and air distribution locations.
5. Take weekends off – Unless your office or commercial building is in full swing seven days a week, make sure you’re not running air conditioning when there’s no one there to benefit from it.