When the temperatures drop and the heating comes on, it can be an expensive time for your business. With this in mind, it’s very important to understand how to run heating efficiently and keep your energy costs down. Another thing to consider is whether it’s worth installing cost-effective heating solutions that are efficient by design – like radiant heating systems.
Read on for a few useful tips on how to run your heating and keep costs down this winter.
1. Timed heating
Unless your business operates 24 hours a day, your heating should only need to be on at certain times. Most modern commercial heating systems can be controlled by a timed thermostat to come on when they are most needed. Heat the building up first thing in the morning, so your staff arrive to a nice, warm environment. You can also configure your business’s heating system so that, once it reaches optimum temperatures, it will stop heating unnecessarily.
A radiant heating system is a particularly good solution for your business if you only need to ensure certain areas of your premises are kept at a steady, warm temperature. This is done through spot heating: mounting radiant heating panels over specific areas that are used frequently to heat the area below.
2. Manage ventilation
When your heating is running, it’s best to avoid having windows and doors open wherever possible – otherwise, your heating will be going (literally) straight out the window. However, this can be very inconvenient for businesses that need to keep their doors open periodically.
Radiant heating is a particularly cost-effective solution for large industrial buildings that regularly need to leave their doors open, such as factories and warehouses. Radiant heating systems heat the people and objects in a building using infrared radiation, rather than heating the air. This means that, even when doors are left open for freight deliveries, moving pallets, etc, heat is not lost as much as with other conventional heating systems. The objects and people within the building become a secondary source of heat.
3. Destratification fans
Another thing that can make industrial buildings particularly difficult to heat efficiently is their high ceilings. In some cases, heat rises up to the roof of commercial buildings, instead of keeping the people on the floor warm and comfortable. An excellent solution to this is the installation of destratification fans. These fans are mounted in the ceiling of your building and push any rising heat back down to the ground. Less heat is lost, and your heating system is able to run more efficiently.
