We all want our employees to feel comfortable in our business offices to remain productive. While we mostly tend to concerns regarding ergonomics, fun installations, and incentives, there’s something that we might be missing out on.
The temperature inside the office plays a vital role in productivity. If your employees feel too cold or too hot, they cannot perform at their best. That’s why you need to understand how to regulate the temperature inside your business office building. This article will help you with that.
Temperature Regulation Tips
Aside from keeping your employees productive, regulating your office’s temperature is also essential in maintaining the efficiency of your HVAC system’s energy consumption. That being said, below are the best tips you need to follow.
Annual Maintenance
Probably the most important temperature regulation tip is to conduct annual maintenance. Having a professional inspect your HVAC system ensures that it will keep functioning properly. Furthermore, an annual inspection and maintenance will help find problems in your system. Ensure that you know where to find the best repair services for air conditioning to replace its damaged parts.
Inspect Air Ducts
Besides the unit itself, you also need to conduct a regular inspection of your building’s air ducts. Sometimes, air ducts are cluttered with dust and debris or would have leaks in certain areas. This reduces your HVAC system’s efficiency in providing your office with a comfortable atmosphere. Ensure that you know how to inspect, clean, and seal air ducts to guarantee that your office’s temperature is maintained.
Programmable Thermostats
If you’re looking for the best temperature regulation solution for energy efficiency you could ever have, it would probably be programmable thermostats. This ensures that your HVAC system runs only when necessary. While it’s true that a building’s occupants can adjust the temperature whenever they leave the office, it’s also quite common for them to forget about it. Installing a programmable thermostat will fix this problem since it will prevent the HVAC system from functioning if the building or office is unoccupied.
Air Filter Replacement
HVAC systems pull in air from outside, filters it, and sends it inside the building. However, you may already be aware that the air outside is not as clean as you want it to be. To prevent dust and debris from getting into your HVAC system and ensure that you only have clean air circulating inside your office, you need air filters. More often not, air filters need to be replaced every 30 days, but it depends on the quality of air in your outside environment. Make sure that you know how to clean and replace HVAC filters, or call a professional for help.
HVAC System Upgrade
Over the years, your HVAC system will inevitably decrease its performance quality. Keep in mind that HVAC systems only last around 15 years, even when maintained properly. Eventually, you will have to replace the unit with a newer version. You will immediately notice the efficiency of a new system after an upgrade. This helps reduce your building’s utility bill because it wouldn’t require as much power as an old unit does to regulate the temperature.
The Importance of Temperature Regulation in the Workplace
The question all of this discussion brings is why we should bother regulating the temperature in the workplace? How significant is comfort when it comes to employee productivity? To understand the link between workplace temperature and employee performance, below are some key factors you need to consider.
Cognitive Functioning
In a study conducted by Cornell University about the link between cold temperature and performance, it was found that a cold office causes employees to incur 44% more errors in their job as compared to having a warm and comfortable environment. When you’re bothered by your environment, it would be harder for you to think properly and focus on your task at hand. This is because our bodies need to exert more energy in keeping ourselves warm.
Physical Movements
On the other hand, an office that is too hot will make it harder for employees to be productive because the environment is too uncomfortable for physical movements. Furthermore, high office temperatures could often lead to dehydration and other health conditions caused by heat. Make sure that your office’s temperature is somewhere between 22 and 25 degrees to maintain your employees’ productivity.
There is an undeniable link between workplace temperature and productivity. That’s why you need to ensure that your HVAC system is properly maintained. Having old systems or damaged parts replaced is essential in keeping your business successful. Ensure that you know how to conduct DIY fixes or where to find services that will fix these problems.
