Keeping Cool Commercially

Summer is here, and that means thinking about how to stay cool as the temperatures rise. Furthermore, it means considering different factors that go into staying cool, such as keeping costs down or being more energy conscious. While we’re all thinking about what that looks like for our home, the Energy Sciences team is thinking about what that means for commercial and industrial facilities. If we were to utilize popular cooling methods, how would we make them work best in larger spaces?

One popular method of keeping a residence cool is called pre-cooling. It involves taking advantage of the cooler parts of the day before running your air conditioning. At home, this might look like keeping your windows open at night and setting your air conditioning to run for shorter lengths of time starting later in the day.

Another popular method involves super-cooling, which has the air conditioning running low enough to cool everything off and essentially trapping it in the space. This means the floors, ceilings, walls, cabinets, and appliances as they retain the colder temperature throughout the day and give the AC a break by keeping doors and windows closed while limiting the use of lights and cooking appliances.

But when considering larger spaces, both methods would waste a lot of energy and money—running the AC in an industrial building until everything is cold? It would be running for a long time, right? Believe it or not, these are measures that save energy and costs and are creative solutions we consider when working with businesses to build a program tailored to their space.

Improving efficiency and functionality isn’t always about capital-intensive updates and investment. In this case, a utility program Energy Sciences implements on behalf of DTE, the DTE Retro-Commissioning (RCx) Program

While keeping larger buildings cool might not seem as simple as opening the windows at night, sometimes it can be, and we strive to make participating in programs like RCx smooth and impactful.

Are you interested in learning more about how the Energy Sciences team can increase energy effectiveness at your business? Let’s talk!