The temperature continues to fluctuate, and there are some days when it’s hard to imagine that summer will eventually be here. However, May is almost upon us and, soon after, the official start of summer. Energy consumption is likely to be one of your commercial property’s largest operating expenses this summer and we'd like to help you prepare your commercial real estate property for warmer weather.

Here are 10 energy saving tips to help reduce your energy consumption costs this summer:

1. Adjust your thermostat. Just raising the temperature by a few degrees in the summer can have a large impact on energy usage.
2. Set back the thermostat in the evenings and other times when your building isn’t occupied. Set up trend logs of your HVAC systems to collect data on whether your systems are actually going into night setback mode
3. Use shades and blinds to control direct sun through windows in summer to avoid an increase in temperature.
4. Install solar shading features on east-, west- and south-facing facades.
5. Make sure that areas in front of vents are clear of furniture and paper. As much as 25% more energy is required to distribute air if your vents are blocked.
6. Replace inefficient cooling equipment with new high efficiency equipment that has a higher coefficient of performance (COP) than the existing equipment.
7. Visually inspect the condition of the heating and cooling coils and the AHU filters. If the coils are dirty or the filters are clogged, change out the filters and clean the coils.
8. Eliminate Single-Pass Cooling Systems. Single-pass cooling systems use water to cool equipment, and the water is circulated only once before being dumped. If possible, modify these systems to be closed loop.
9. Track and analyze energy consumption using a tool like The Energy Management Platform (EMP) from WGL Energy. The EMP helps you manage energy consumption and provides recommendations for energy efficient changes.
10. Educate employees and building occupants about how their behaviors affect energy use.

For more commercial real estate energy conservation tips, please view the following resources:

• National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL)’s Commercial Building Checklists. NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.
• ENERGY STAR’s low- and no-cost energy efficiency measures. ENERGY STAR is a voluntary U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program that delivers environmental benefits and financial value through superior energy efficiency.