If your company uses a heating and cooling system that's more than ten years old, there's a good chance that you're wasting money and energy.
Even well-maintained older systems aren't as efficient as their newer cousins, which often pay for themselves in energy savings after just a few years.
If you want to replace your old system with a more efficient one, you'll need to consider a few things.
Businesses have special requirements that homeowners usually won't encounter.
Building Age Most older heating and cooling systems are oversized.
That's because an older building leaks more than new construction.
You need a larger, more powerful furnace or air conditioner if you want to keep your space comfortable.
This still holds true if your business is located in an old building that hasn't been remodeled recently.
If you're located in a newer space or if your old building has modern windows, weather-stripping and other energy-saving improvements, however, you can install a smaller, more efficient system to keep your workers and your customers comfortable and happy.
Pay Attention To Sizing Many heating and air conditioning contractors use very simple metrics to size a furnace or air conditioner.
Some just check the brand and model of your current system, then install the equivalent model, or even one that's more powerful.
This is wasteful; a HVAC system that's either too powerful or underpowered can produce unpleasant hot and cold spells with few comfortable working periods.
Sizing metrics that rely simply on square footage are also very inaccurate.
To size your HVAC system correctly, check out the U.
S.
Department of Energy's Manuals J and D.
These allow you to base furnace and air conditioning sizing on your local climate, how many customers and workers you expect, the efficiency level of appliances and machines in your building, and how old your workers and customers are likely to be.
You can also adjust HVAC sizing according to your building's shape, size and orientation, how much insulation it has, how many windows you have and how much space they take up, and how much air enters the space on a daily basis.
Using these metrics may take longer, but it'll make it a lot easier to the get the air conditioning or heating systems that are right for your situation.
Steam Vs.
Forced Air The vast majority of heating and cooling systems use forced air to deliver furnace heat and cool air through the same ductwork.
If your business is located in an older building, however, you may need to install a new boiler for steam heat separately from your air conditioning system.
Sizing a steam boiler works a little differently than sizing a gas or electric furnace.
Hire a contractor who's experienced with steam heat to determine the capacity of your radiators, then match the furnace to the radiators.
If your business has more radiators than you need, consider removing some and closing off the valves.
You can even replace large antique radiators with smaller, more modern ones for greater efficiency, but you should never buy a boiler that's not sized to the radiator capacity.