Keep Your Business Cool This Summer With These 5 HVAC Tips

The summer season usually comes with sunny weather, hot days, and even hotter offices and commercial buildings if your HVAC is not running efficiently. Your tenants, employees, and customers will rely on cool air inside your building. That’s why you should take these five steps to keep your buildings cool and pleasant.

Prepare your HVAC for the summer

Preparing for summer is a project that should start no later than spring. However, there are many things you can do to help your commercial HVAC system during summer and other seasons. Having your air conditioning unit or heating pumps under shade can reduce energy costs up to 30 percent. For instance, if you have space, an awning is a good investment.

You can also shade your windows using mirror film or blinds to help keep your business cool. Window treatments aren’t just for saving energy, but are also good business investments. They keep your rooms comfortable, as well as create an inviting atmosphere. If you don’t want to install mirror film, consider blinds or drapes to block heat. The less light that enters your offices, the cooler they will be and the less work your commercial HVAC will have to do.

Prepare for summer inside your building

Not everything you do to prepare your commercial HVAC is limited to the outside of your building or your windows. For example, check your furniture placement to make sure you aren’t blocking any vents. If your office has ceiling fans, always keep them on. Increased air circulation improves heat distribution and keeps your office cool for lower costs. Additionally, close the doors to rooms you don’t use. The less volume your HVAC has to cool, the better it can allocate energy resources. You can also turn lights off in areas that aren’t being used. Heat-generating lights like halogens and incandescent bulbs can increase room temperatures, so consider switching to low-heat fluorescent bulbs.

Invest in programmable thermostats

Programmable thermostats are great for optimizing the energy use of your commercial HVAC system during the summer. A traditional thermostat can keep the system on all the time. A programmable thermostat can be set to increase or decrease cooling during programmed times throughout the day. Essentially, you can optimize it to work at full strength at the height of the day and taper off as it gets darker and cooler.

Finally, you can switch your thermostat to low or off on the weekends to prioritize most use during the work week. Remember, your HVAC system is designed to swing room temperatures by about 20 degrees. Don’t let your office get too hot on Sunday or else it could be unbearable on Monday.

Turn off computers and equipment

Everything that runs on electricity generates heat, especially computers. Most businesses tend to leave their computers on even when they aren’t in use. Even idle computers generate a lot of heat, so if you operate a larger business with computers, remind all employees to turn them off when not in use.

Keep a regular maintenance schedule

Never ignore scheduled maintenance. Regularly scheduled maintenance is one of the best ways to keep your equipment in top shape. The components in your commercial HVAC system should be inspected, maintained, or replaced in order to keep it running efficiently.

Don’t forget to change your HVAC filters regularly as well. The air filters likely did a lot of heavy lifting over the winter, so you should change them out for the summer. Your air filters will be necessary for keeping out pollen and other allergens, so you should consider changing them even more often.

Commercial HVAC services in the Texas Panhandle

If you would like to optimize your Commercial HVAC system for the summer, contact the experts at Allen’s Tri-State Mechanical Inc. in Amarillo, Texas. You can call us at (806) 376-8345 and Contact Us by email to learn more, or visit us in person at 404 S. Hayden St. in Amarillo.