It’s warming up outside and summer is around the corner. Consider the below tips to help you prepare for summer, save energy and avoid complaints:

• Perform routine maintenance recommended by the manufacturer in your owner’s manual. This typically includes replacing dirty air filters and cleaning intake screens, condenser coils, supply registers and return grilles.
• Check the economizer: Many air conditioning systems use a damper vent called an economizer that draws in cool outside air when it is available to reduce the need for mechanically cooled air. However, if not regularly checked, the linkage that opens and shuts the damper can seize up or break, potentially resulting in large energy waste.
• Cottonwood trees are in full bloom in May and June. Their cottony seeds can clog air filters in a few short days. If you live in an area of the country with Cottonwood trees, it’s advisable to check your building’s air filters during this time. Cottonwood seed is a major contributor of cooling equipment fouling. This naturally occurring airborne contaminant (generated by the Poplar Tree) usually affects operations from May through early August, hence, companies that rely upon process cooling must clean their equipment frequently during this period or risk failure.
• Turn off heat producing equipment when not in use. (printers, copiers, monitors)
• Make sure equipment run time matches occupancy. If a room is not occupied, make sure air conditioning is not on in that room.
• Clear furniture away from supply registers so as to allow good circulation of conditioned air.
• Check thermostat set points so that cooling isn’t too low.
• Avoid simultaneous heating and cooling.
• Make sure shades and blinds are in working order to keep sun from heating up a space.
• Using BAS data, create a heat map to analyze timing of individual building peak demand, evaluate patters of energy use across time and day, check coincidence factors to discover partial contribution to total peak demand of multi-building complexes, and reduce peak energy demand.
• Check alerts on equipment that can overheat.

For more information on building scheduling and diagnosing common building system problems, visit the BetterBricks website: https://betterbricks.com/cre-hub/#/problems-solutions/results/2809