There has been a big push in recent years to develop more sustainable, green commercial HVAC technology. Upgrading your commercial building with a more eco-friendly HVAC system is a way to save your business money by lowering your heating and cooling costs. Many of these technologies can also improve indoor comfort and provide you with much greater control over the temperature throughout every part of the building.
Smart Thermostats
Many people now have a smart thermostat in their home, but smart thermostats are also an option for commercial HVAC systems. Energy-monitoring is a built-in feature in most smart thermostat apps. ENERGY STAR-certified smart thermostats also provide recommendations on ways you can improve efficiency and reduce energy usage just by changing your thermostat settings.
Another point about smart thermostats is that you can connect the unit to door and motion sensors in various locations within the building. With these sensors, the thermostat can sense when the building is unoccupied. After everyone leaves, the thermostat will immediately turn your air conditioning or heating down to save energy overnight. That means you won’t need to adjust the thermostat settings manually when anyone stays later than usual.
According to estimates by the US Department of Energy, a smart thermostat will normally improve the efficiency and reduce the energy usage of your HVAC system up to 10%. In commercial buildings that aren’t occupied overnight or on the weekends, your savings could be even higher.
Heat Pumps and Dual-Fuel Heating Systems
A commercial heat pump system will almost always be the most energy-efficient option for heating your building. In the past, heat pumps rarely performed all that adequately or efficiently in cold temperatures. Nowadays, most cold-climate heat pump systems can work at 100% efficiency in temperatures as cold as 5 degrees. The efficiency of a heat pump decreases in colder temperatures slightly, but the system can continue putting out heat and working fairly effectively in temperatures as cold as -15 degrees. Some heat pumps can even work down to -22 degrees.
In New Hampshire, you’ll rarely need to worry about it being too cold for a heat pump system to continue keeping your commercial building warm enough. However, it can happen, which is why cold-climate heat pump systems require an auxiliary heat source as well. The auxiliary source is activated when the heat pump is ineffective because of low temperatures or when a significant temperature increase is required immediately. The auxiliary source will also come on every hour or two when the heat pump switches into defrost mode.
Most commonly, this auxiliary source is electric heat strips that are installed within the central air handler. The drawback to this type of system is that the heat strips use large amounts of electricity. That means your system won’t work as energy effectively whenever the heat strips are running. So a dual-fuel heating system is often the better choice. A dual-fuel system consists of a heat pump and a gas furnace.
Even though a gas furnace produces carbon emissions, a dual-fuel system can still be more efficient since the furnace uses a lot less energy compared to electric heat strips. The other thing to consider is that the furnace won’t need to run all that much.
HVAC Zoning
A zoning system ideally suits most types of commercial buildings. This type of system is an especially positive option if different parts of the building have different cooling and heating requirements. Another advantage is that it gives everyone more control over the temperature in their zone.
Most central HVAC systems have just one zone and are controlled by a single thermostat. A zoning system divides the building into individual zones that are each individually controlled. That means if you turn the temperature up or down in any zone, it has a zero impact on the rest of the building.
One advantage of a zoning system is that it will eliminate cold and hot spots throughout the building. Each zone receives the necessary cooling or heating based on the temperature set on the thermostat in that zone, which eliminates cold and hot spots throughout the building.
An even bigger advantage is that zoning systems are much more efficient since they rarely need to supply heating or cooling to every zone at one time. Commercial zoning systems use variable-speed heat pumps or air conditioners and furnaces, which can adjust how much heating or cooling they’re producing at any time. A variable-speed system will only rarely run at full speed and instead will run at a much lower speed, in which case it will use far less energy.
It runs at a speed that depends on the number of open zones requiring cooling or heating, as well as the current cooling or heating needs of those zones. Most times, the only time the system will operate at full speed is when all zones are open and the temperature in every zone needs to be raised or lowered by more than a few degrees.
VRF Heat Pump and Heat Recovery Systems
A VRF or variable-refrigerant flow HVAC system is an alternative to a central HVAC system. VRFs are a type of mini-split system, which means you have individual air handlers in each room of the building instead of just one large central air handler. Since each air handler is only responsible for heating and cooling the room it’s in, this type of system also provides zoned temperature control. That means each person can keep their office or area at whatever temperature they wish.
A VRF system is more energy efficient than a central heat pump system because of the elimination of heat loss and gain in air ducts. This type of system also has an inverter compressor that can speed up and slow down to control how many cooling or heating is being put out at one time.
As with a central heat pump, a VRF heat pump can provide heating or cooling, just not both concurrently. This makes a VRF heat recovery system unique, as it can provide heating in one area while simultaneously cooling another area. This can be especially useful for places like a commercial kitchen or server room that you’ll usually still need to cool during the winter while heating the other parts of the building at the same time.
How an HVAC System Can Be Green?
An HVAC system can be green by integrating energy-efficient technologies and practices. Using high-efficiency units, programmable thermostats, and proper insulation reduces energy consumption. Biannual maintenance and smart controls optimize performance, while environmentally-friendly refrigerants minimize greenhouse gas emissions.
Joyce Cooling & Heating Inc. is a family-owned business offering reliable, professional commercial, and residential HVAC services in Nashua, Canterbury and the surrounding areas. We’ve been successfully running Joyce Cooling & Heating Inc. for nearly 30 years and possess the expertise to effectively meet your cooling and heating needs, ensuring that your HVAC system operates as efficiently as possible. To learn more about how we can help make your commercial HVAC system more sustainable, contact us today. We also offer comprehensive indoor air quality services!