Houston Heatwaves: Cooling Solutions for Commercial Spaces

Houston is known for its hot and humid climate, and 2023 was the hottest year in the city’s history with an average annual temperature of 72.5 degrees. The highest recorded temperature in summer was a staggering 109 degrees, and these extreme heatwaves represent serious challenges for commercial spaces like offices, and other businesses.

Extreme heat isn’t just uncomfortable to put up with, it poses significant health risks too in the form of heat exhaustion or stroke. Higher temperatures also put more stress on your air conditioner and make it work harder, consuming more energy and increasing your bills. Commercial spaces in Houston need proper temperature control for the comfort of the residents inside, and this article looks at some cooling solutions that can help.

Choosing a Cooling System

The first thing that comes to mind for most people when thinking about cooling a room is air conditioners, but there is an alternative too: air coolers. Both provide cooling, but the way they do it is different. Air conditioners use refrigerant to transfer the indoor heat outside, while air coolers work by evaporating water into the air and blowing cool air inside, which cools the surrounding environment. Coolers tend to be vastly cheaper than air conditioners and consume a lot less energy as well, so are more energy efficient. As they don’t use any harmful chemicals, air coolers are also considered to be more eco-friendly. But conditioners have their advantages too, in that they are more effective at cooling large areas consistently and can work in any climate, unlike coolers that don’t work very well in humid climates. Air conditioners also come with advanced filtration mechanisms like HEPA filters.

There are also Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) systems, which consist of a main outdoor compressor unit that cools the air and multiple indoor units that distribute it. VRF systems allow you to regulate the temperature exactly as you want to and also have zoning abilities, allowing different areas of your commercial space to be cooled independently. This means you don’t have to cool the entire space to the same degree if you don’t need to, resulting in significant energy savings. Their most impressive feature is that VRFs can simultaneously cool and heat different locations using a heat recovery system.

Alternative Cooling Solutions

1.       Green Roofs: The heat island effect refers to the fact that structures like buildings and roads in urban cities absorb a lot of heat, and one of the ways to deal with it is to build green roofs. In simple words, green roofing means to put plants and other vegetation on a rooftop. Although it’s far from being as effective as an actual air conditioner, green roofs help to reduce the temperature of the surrounding structure and save energy as well.
2.       Cool Roofs: While green roofs consist of covering your building’s roof with vegetation, cool roofs are made to reflect more sunlight than a traditional roof. This achieves the same purpose as a green roof in that it lowers the building’s temperature and energy consumption required for cooling. Reflective roof coatings may be used to make the roof surface more reflective.

3 Tips to Optimize Your Cooling System

1.      Perform Regular Maintenance

Your HVAC system will not run effectively for long without regular maintenance. This applies even more to commercial ACs as they function under the stress of more workload than residential ACs, which leads to more wear and tear over time. For commercial HVAC repair and maintenance, Houston, TX has many professional service providers whom you can contact to get your HVAC system inspected.

2.  Right Size of HVAC System

The HVAC system you choose for your commercial space needs to be the right size. An oversized system may cool too fast and turn on and off frequently which is bad for its long-term health, and can also result in higher energy bills. An undersized system will not effectively cool the entire space, and end up getting overworked to perform its job.

3.  Upgrade Old Systems

If your existing HVAC units are over ten years old, the time for an upgrade could be closer in the future than you think. Newer air conditioners, with their modern updated technology, are not just more effective at cooling but more energy efficient too. Although the upfront cost of purchase you will have to pay can be quite high, you will also save a lot of money in the long run through lower energy bills.

If not an entire system, consider getting a new thermostat at least. Thermostats monitor the temperature indoors and regulate it as needed, with modern smart thermostats having even more features such as smartphone app control and scheduling.

Conclusion

HVAC systems are the most common cooling solutions for commercial spaces, but require proper maintenance and you need to choose the right type to ensure optimal performance and efficiency. Alternative cooling solutions, such as planting trees and roof coatings, can also help reduce the heat and improve the comfort of commercial spaces. Commercial space owners should consider their cooling needs and preferences to find the best cooling solution for their situation.