6 Energy Conservation Tips For An Energy Efficient Building

We’re all concerned about our energy efficiency. Your facility’s bottom line and the environment can both benefit greatly from running your building when you use less energy and employ energy-saving tactics.

Why should you focus on turning your facility into an energy-efficient, well-oiled machine? It pays for itself. Don’t believe us? Check out these staggering facts from EnergyStar.gov:

• Installing occupancy sensors in a building cost one Energy Star partner $28,400, but they saved $89,200 in energy costs in their first year alone – paying for the sensors in just 4 months time.
• Another Energy Star partner invested $70,000 in efficiency measures within their HVAC system and chilled water plant. And then? They saved $426,000 in their first year. Their investment was paid back in savings in two months.
• Kimberly Clark invested $350,000 in LED lights throughout their corporation. A rebate brought their actual total cost down to $257,000. The switch to LED lights saves them $160,000 annually, which means that these new lights paid for themselves in 1.5 years.

There are all kinds of ways you can implement energy-saving technology. And the investment is always worth it when the energy bill arrives. So how can your building increase its energy efficiency?

Have Your HVAC System Serviced Regularly

A yearly tune-up of your HVAC system can boost efficiency and improve comfort levels too. HVAC systems account for 50-60% of your energy costs, so maintaining a well-functioning system can keep your system running smoothly and costs low.  

Most commercial building energy consumption lies in the efficiency of its HVAC system. Is your working at full capacity? You may be able to reduce energy consumption in your building simply by giving your HVAC system a tune-up. 

The Department of Energy has found that you can cut energy costs by 35% annually if you increase HVAC efficiency by adding or replacing parts. Retrofitting your building’s HVAC system can act like a total upgrade, and besides improving efficiency, it can make your building more comfortable, and more consistent when it comes to maintaining temperature and humidity levels.

Seal Your Heating Ducts

Your HVAC system is working on overdrive to heat and cool your entire building, but are you losing energy in your ducts? Chances are you can make a big difference in your building’s monthly energy bill by sealing the ducts. 

How big of a difference? Somewhere between 20 and 30% of the air that is moving through the ducts in your building is lost due to holes, leaks, and poorly connected ducts. This loss of air drives up your facility’s heating and cooling bill because of how much your HVAC system has to work to keep up. This is one of the main ways to reduce energy waste – by eliminating lost air in the ducts.

How do you know if your ducts have leaks or weaknesses that need to be repaired? 

• You have higher energy bills in the summer and winter
• There are rooms in your building that are warmer or cooler than others, or are difficult to heat and cool
• There are rooms in your building that are stuffy or uncomfortable
• You have tangled or flexible ducts in your HVAC system

Check with your HVAC company to see if your ducts need to be sealed. Sealing them may make a world of difference in your building’s overall energy efficiency.

Plant Trees Around Your Building

Believe it or not, there are major efficiency benefits your building can gain just by planting trees around the perimeter of the facility. Trees that line city streets in the U.S. save an estimated $7.8 billion in energy costs each year due to reduced electricity usage and decreased heating and cooling costs.

In order to get the full benefits of new trees around your building, you can strategize about which trees to plant in each part of the facility:

• Plant leafy, deciduous trees around the south and east areas of your building to provide shade in the summer and block sunlight and heat from raising the temperature in the summer and lower cooling costs. 
• Plant evergreen trees around the north and west areas of your facility to block wind and act as a sort of insulation in the wintertime and help keep your building warmer.

Use Energy-Efficient Lighting Solutions

There are so many ways to implement energy-efficient lighting these days. For example, with Energy Star-rated LED lighting, you can use at least 75% less energy, and use bulbs that last up to 25 times as long as their incandescent or fluorescent counterparts. 

And? LED lights require less energy but are actually much brighter, so not only are you saving money in energy costs and replacement bulbs, but your facility is brighter, which can dramatically improve the mood of the occupants of your facility as well. 

Your building is brighter, and your bill is lower. What could possibly be better?

…And Install Occupancy Sensors (Smart Lights)

If your facilities don’t have them already, you really should consider occupancy sensors. Improving building energy efficiency is all about utilizing energy only when it’s needed, so why use lights when nobody is around?

Occupancy sensors are gaining popularity in all kinds of facilities: Schools, the healthcare industry, office buildings, airports, and even in homes. Wired or wireless controls of all sorts are available to determine when lights are turned on and off based on installed motion sensors.

These lighting controls can reduce lighting energy use anywhere between 10 and 90%, depending on the use of space in a particular building. Those kinds of savings just can’t be denied.

Other Ways to Increase Building Energy Efficiency

Once you start to learn the benefits of having an energy-efficient building, you will start to look for other ways of how to save energy in buildings, too. So what else can you do to conserve energy?

• Install smart, programmable thermometers, to save on heating and cooling costs when the building is unoccupied
• Encourage occupants to eliminate sources of phantom energy: Energy that is drawn from equipment when it is plugged in, but not turned on, like printers and copiers
• Improve building insulation
• Change HVAC air filters monthly

Also: Hire an Experienced, Knowledgeable Cleaning Company

Trust us on this one: The cleaning company you use can make a big difference in the amount of energy your building consumes. 

At All Building Cleaning Corp, we work with our clients to ensure that we come up with the best cleaning plan for them. A plan that not only serves the facility and its occupants but conserves energy as well. We are tuned into commercial building operations, which means we clean your building when it’s right for you. 

Not only are we trained and knowledgeable when it comes to the most effective ways to clean a space quickly and expertly so your facility looks great, but we also focus on how to save you the most energy in the process.

For example, we may schedule daytime cleaning. We arrive early in the morning, before most people show up to work and work through daytime hours, to save you money by lowering the energy consumption of your office. Since we are there when you are, inconspicuously working in the background to provide you with a sparkling clean facility, lights and HVAC systems don’t have to be powered on at night for cleaning.

With an energy efficiency-focused cleaning corporation like ours, you can employ smart thermostats to lower heating and cooling costs, and save the facility money on your next energy bill. We take care of the challenging and noisy work, like mopping or vacuuming, before you get there, so you get a clean building, you lower your energy consumption, and day-to-day work can continue, uninterrupted. It’s a win-win-win situation.

Whether it’s a school corporation, retail store, office building, or condo or other property, All Building Cleaning Corp is there to make your role as facilities manager a simpler one, by providing exceptional cleaning services in an energy-efficient manner. 

It’s why we are the top professional cleaning company in Coral Springs; because we have been dedicated to premium service for facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties for over 20 years. And that’s why our clients are so pleased with our work. We know what it takes to make a facility run smoothly, and we support you every step of the way.

Let us help make yours an energy-efficient building. Request a quote today!