Many people think that business premises are not supposed to be as well maintained as their homes. This is where they work, they say, not where they live. However, knowing that we spend eight or nine hours a day at our offices, we should take care of them just as carefully as with our own homes. And one of the best things to do is make them more energy-efficient.
Planning
A proper redecoration, remodeling or retrofitting job around your business premises cannot be done without proper planning and thinking way ahead. Dealing with offices spaces is different than dealing with your home – unlike it, your office is used by a number of people and each of them probably has different needs, requirements and desires when it comes to making the shared space energy-efficient.
Also, you should definitely hire a group of professionals instead of trying to do everything on your own: a good interior designer, an experienced architect and a general contractor. The last one can then help you conduct an energy audit of the premises and determine what can be done and what the best way to achieve energy-efficiency is. Once the results of your audit have arrived and been discussed by all the people in your office, you can move on to the next stage.
Thermodynamics
All energy-efficiency retrofits come down to thermodynamics and your ultimate goal is to reduce the exchange between the indoors and the outdoors. In order to do this, you must minimize the amount of heat being transferred from your office into the open space and only if you manage to ensure this prevention of air flow, your energy needs – and costs – will be much lower. Also, your office will feel much cozier all year long, which will make your employees more motivated to perform better.
When talking about heat dissipation, most experts point out that the two main problems in any business premise are conduction and convection. The two are interconnected and one problem has a tendency to influence the next. Hence, you need to take care of them both to be sure that your offices are energy-efficient and up to the highest standard.
Solving Two Main Problems
Your windows need to be high quality because most of the heat dissipates through them in the process of convection, claim Adelaide–based experts for double glazed windows. These windows include two glass panels and an additional layer of air in between, so you can be sure that your office will be much hotter in the winter and much cooler in the summer. Therefore, you will be required to use less energy for regulating temperature.
On the other hand, conduction is best regulated by insulation. Since heat flows though materials like brick and wood easily, proper insulation is not to be ignored. However, since business premises are often in a shared building, insulation from the outside can be a problem. Hence, many companies insulate their offices from within and focus on inside walls using fiberglass insulation, mineral wool, polyurethane foam or Styrofoam.
Ultimate Goals
The results of an office retrofit are twofold – proper windows and insulation will make your premises more enjoyable, both in the winter and the summer, and allow you to control the temperature more easily. Consequently, you will have to spend less energy on the heating and the A/C and save a considerable amount of money every single month. The final thing you will have to do is introduce an air freshener – insulation can affect people’s health and lower the quality of the inside air and you do not want your employees to get sick, feel dizzy or fall asleep.
