Shawn’s Tip Of The Week:

This week, we’re focusing on the low-hanging fruit. Installing more efficient equipment or changing policy pays off, but it takes a lot of work, time, and/or money. Rather than focus on those, however, today we’re going to look at what’s cheap, easy, and actionable.

Here are 5 things you can do that will give you a healthier and more efficient building, today:

1. Check thermostat set points.
I’m sure you’ve seen it a hundred times: someone is cold so they crank the thermostat up to high and then forget about it. Walk your building and if a setting looks way off, reset it (or better yet, figure out why it was set that way).

2. Check for dripping faucets and running toilets.
Spend the 10 minutes it takes to proactively fix leaky sinks and toilets. Not only will it save water and money, it will cut down on future service calls from tenants, saving you time as well.

3. Make sure doors and windows are closed and sealed properly
See last week’s post for a deeper explanation. You don’t have to take on your whole building at once. Start at one unit and work from there. Before you know it, you’ll have a better building.

4. Do a zone audit
Nine times out of ten, there is no sense in heating or cooling a space where there is no occupancy. Unless you have sensitive equipment or a freeze risk, there is a good chance that conditioning an empty room does nothing but cost you money. So investigate your facility and make sure that you’re not spending money making an empty room comfortable.

5. Seek out the sun
Look for any opportunity to take advantage of natural light. Clear clutter out from in front of windows. Add a coat of white paint to areas with windows to reflect (free) sunlight and lessen your dependence on artificial lighting.

All of these are low-cost, low-effort ways to create some substantial savings. Do you have any experience with any of these?

Many engineers use LogCheck to stay on top of regular maintenance tasks like these and more. If you’d like to try our digital logbook in your facility, click the link below. Take LogCheck for a test-drive in your building, and start saving today.

Header image: Faucet Drip 2 by Eric Norris cropped and used via Creative Commons license