As business owners navigate to battle increasing costs in all aspects of their business. They tend to forget about all the little things that can save them money regarding building maintenance. In energy conservation, a concept as simple as turning off the lights when nobody is in the room or closing a refrigeration unit when not in use can feel insignificant in making a difference to your energy cost. However, by taking a holistic approach building owners and business owners can really save immensely when it comes to energy costs and increase their building efficiency to meet local sustainability standards.
What are the components of a building envelope?
The first step in maintaining and improving building efficiency would be to analyze your building envelope. A building envelope is the physical structure that separates the interior of a building from the exterior. The components of a building envelope include external walls, insulation, sealing, skylights, loading docks, doors, and floors. A good building envelope will contain thick insulation and sealing that can help buildings maintain interior temperatures as well as highly efficient windows that can draw sunlight indoors. Having a building with low-quality sealing and insulation can cause your HVAC systems to work extra hard just to maintain a comfortable setting for those inside, potentially costing more money to run systems and causing them to wear out faster. Therefore, prioritizing plugging and sealing any significant holes in your insulation, walls, corners, windows, and doors can help keep indoor temperatures inside and conserve energy.
What other components can improve the efficiency of an overall building?
Along with the building’s envelope are energy efficient smart technologies that can be installed into your HVAC systems such as smart thermostats or occupancy sensors that can regulate temperatures in rooms when they are in use. Utilizing natural sunlight and daylight harvesting sensors and drawing shades when the sun is heating up rooms, are two simple and inexpensive ways to save energy.
Why should you care?
Buildings consume about 75% of the electricity in the United States and they emit about 40% of the greenhouse gases. Local governments have already started implementing sustainability regulations for buildings. For example, in New York City regulations like Local Law 87 require buildings over 50,000 square feet to submit annual Energy Efficiency Reports for their buildings or face penalties. Therefore, ensuring optimal improvements to building envelopes and energy efficient systems within your buildings are essential to avoid fines and to help be part of the fight against climate change.
Our team at Sunlight Energy Group consists of energy experts that can assist you in making improvements to your building envelope, HVAC systems, lighting systems, and implement energy conservation measures. Please don’t hesitate to contact our team at Sunlight Energy Group with any inquiries or questions that you may have.
