Business Management ABCs

How to Conserve Energy and Save Money by Controlling Building Temperature

One of the challenges for most businesses today is energy consumption, along with the associated carbon footprint and high costs. Conservation through controlling building temperatures can be a source of significant savings for most businesses today. Of course, the comfort of the people must also be taken into account. This article presents four simple steps that can help you be more effectively control building temperatures, reduce environmental impacts and save money for the business.

�1.��� Set thermostats at 68-70� in winter and 72-75� in summer. This simple change can lead to 5-10% energy savings. There may be some thermostats set on heat and others on cooling within the same building or area of a building. Set them all alike and encourage people to leave them alone.

�2.��� Post placards on thermostats to provide information to users. Using these on each thermostat coupled with leaving them set at one control point instead of constantly raising and lowering the set points could yield closer to 10% than 5% in savings.

�3.��� Change to digital thermostats wherever you can. This will require some investment, but usually yields 30%-80%�return on investment for the thermostats depending upon the thermostats selected.

�4.��� Program thermostats for a five degree setback about one hour before maximum building occupancy and then go back to the normal settings about one hour after maximum occupancy; for example, if you have more people between 12 noon and 6 p.m. then program them to change at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. This simple step could lead to 2-5% savings, but you can reach the point of diminishing returns if the setbacks are programmed for too long a period of time.

Controlling building temperatures is an effective way to manage and control your costs and reduce environmental impacts associated with electricity and other utilities.

Davis M. Woodruff, PE, CMC is an internationally recognized consultant, professional speaker and author who is an expert in showing companies how to be the low cost, high quality, environmentally responsible leader in their industry. The benefits he brings to his clients include: developing leaders; optimizing resource utilization; improving processes, quality and customer satisfaction; and saving time and $$$. Since 1984 he has served clients in 35 states and on 3 continents. Davis is the author of a full length book Taking Care of the Basics: 101 Success Factors for Managers, and dozens of published articles. He is a 1972 Engineering graduate of Auburn University, a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) and Professional Engineer (PE). His consulting firm, Management Methods based in Decatur, AL, is now in its third decade. Davis can be reached at davisw@managementmethods.com or for more information visit http://www.daviswoodruff.com