Let’s be honest: although we should do these checks all year round, it’s still mainly about responding to complaints reactively. The good news is that the first step has already been taken. In this section, Ruud Hulleman – Technical Manager at Priva – is delighted to share some of his summer tips for building management.
1. Holiday periods
The holiday period is just around the corner! If your business is going to close for the holidays, use the holiday period settings to keep the system in night mode. Don’t forget to reset this setting after the holiday. Tip! Put a reminder in your diary now.
2. Room temperature compensation
In many buildings, users have the option of compensating for the basic room temperature set point at their location. This is often a compensation of +/- 3 degrees Kelvin. In a winter period, this will usually be adjusted upwards. As, however, many people are still working from home at the moment, the locations where these compensations have been entered are not occupied right now – and that’s a shame. In the summer period, these settings can represent a major disruption.
“Therefore remember not to allow the difference between the desired room temperature and the outside temperature become too great. If the outside temperature rises, the indoor temperature may also rise a little. This usually gives a comfortable feeling and saves you energy costs”, says Ruud Hulleman, Technical Manager at Priva.
3. Centrally calculated room temperature
The generally calculated room temperatures are often determined via a heating curve setting based on the outside temperature. In winter, temperatures are often adjusted upwards following complaints. One of Ruud’s tips is to check this setting regularly during the summer period and adjust it where necessary.
4. Night ventilation
Cooling the building costs energy. In many cases, you can easily decrease the room temperature by ventilating through the night. In this way, the day starts out cooler in the building. Check the settings and see what effect this night ventilation might have. If the difference in temperature between outside and inside is not large enough, there won’t be much of an effect. In that case, it would also be a waste of energy to run the ventilation – you can make other choices here.
5. Cooling with a climate ceiling
Many office buildings use climate ceilings for their climate control. These are controlled based on room temperature. Take a look at the settings of the desired flow temperature – in particular the calculated dew point. Stay at least 1˚K above this to prevent condensation.
As the control is based on room temperature, the surface temperature of the ceiling can be quite low. In this case, the influence of the radiation emitted by a climate ceiling is often underestimated.
Large surfaces that are exposed to radiation – such as office desktops – can cool down considerably as a result. This may cause discomfort – cold hands, for instance. One common complaint is ‘draughts’. This is especially the case if the ceiling is not very high and is close to the employee. These draughts are often also the result of cold radiation on the employee’s head and neck.
In a nutshell: if you’re using climate ceilings for cooling, make sure the surface temperatures aren’t too low. Would you like to see all this in practice? As soon as it’s permitted again, we’d like to invite you to visit our Growth Lab, where we’ll be pleased to show you the various possibilities.
