Get Your HVAC System Holiday Ready: Increase Safety, Comfort, and Savings this Season

Before locking the office doors at the end of December, make sure your HVAC system is holiday-ready. 

Whether you’re hosting an office holiday party or hosting holiday shoppers for your business, your HVAC system can make or break the experience. Thankfully, the crucial elements of your building systems are all well within your control—or the control of your HVAC contractor. 

As we head into winter, our experts at Kimco Controls have put together our best advice for a successful holiday season.

Preparing your commercial office space for the holidays

Some offices close for the holiday, while many others operate with significantly reduced capacity. Either way, the likelihood is that fewer people will be in the office for that time period between mid-December and early January. 

Why can’t I just lock the door and forget about the office until 2025?
While it’s certainly possible to just lower the thermostat and go, there are many reasons we recommend you prepare your office space in advance of closing up for the holidays. 

Health and safety: The preparation done now will help ensure the safety of your space in terms of fire prevention, security, and health of occupants, including air quality and carbon monoxide detection.

Energy savings: Making sure your HVAC system is in top shape and set up for cold weather and lower occupancy also promotes energy efficiency.  

Cost savings: Where there’s energy savings there’s dollar savings. The energy efficiency gained through HVAC preparation this winter results in lower utility bills. 

How to get your HVAC system holiday-ready

Preparing your office or commercial space for the holidays doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are some of the most important steps you can take for your office before breaking out the egg nog. 

Temperature adjustments: For buildings that will be closed or operating with reduced occupancy and hours, adjusting the thermostat is a must-do. You wouldn’t leave for vacation without lowering the temperature slightly in your home. Note: you should never turn the heat off completely, which can result in frozen pipes. 

Building automation systems, like those installed by Kimco Controls, can detect and adjust the temperature in individual rooms based on occupancy and other predetermined factors. This makes keeping a consistent temperature — even when no one is in the office — a breeze. 

Air quality: When winter arrives, people spend more time indoors, the heat is turned up, and there’s less fresh air circulating from open windows. Staying on top of air quality becomes essential for employee health. Basic maintenance like fresh air filters or keeping vents clear will go a long way in improving air quality. 

Smart building technology, however, is one of the best things you can do for your employee's health. Sensors will track and alert you to impurities or gas detection and demand control ventilation intelligently keeps air circulating where it’s needed most.

Lighting considerations: With lighting automaton, “the lights are on, but nobody’s home” is a thing of the past. This technology is very common these days, where motion-detected lights turn on when people are in a room and turn off when it’s unoccupied. For those who haven’t invested in lighting automation, make sure to switch off all of the lights before heading out for the holidays to conserve energy!

Schedule routine HVAC maintenance: There’s no better way to close out the year for your building than knowing that everything is in good running order. That means no nasty surprises like failing heating or frayed wires within the system in 2025. 

If you haven’t signed up for quarterly preventative maintenance solutions, arrange for an HVAC inspection before closing up for winter break. The peace of mind is priceless. Schedule an HVAC inspection with Kimco.   

Peace of mind, wherever you are

The benefits of building automation are endless — from energy efficiency to lower operating costs or superior security. Remote monitoring and troubleshooting is another feature of building automation systems that shines particularly bright when a building is operating at reduced capacity. 

Building automation systems allow for remote monitoring of your building’s HVAC systems and, should any issues arise, diagnosis and troubleshooting as well. That means an issue can pop up and be resolved by your building automation technician without anyone having to set foot in the building, depending on the challenge they discover. 

Building automation: Creating ideal customer conditions 

For businesses with shoppers coming and going in their brick-and-mortar stores, comfort is key — particularly with the rise and competition of online shopping.

From lighting to temperature, an inviting ambiance is essential to keeping shoppers once you’ve already drawn them in. 

Thankfully, creating ideal customer conditions is easy if you have building automation in your corner. 

Lighting: Harsh overhead lighting is the bane of a pleasant shopping experience. While customers need to be able to see adequately, they also don’t want to feel run down by fluorescent lights beaming down on them. At the same time, natural light changes throughout the day. 

Lighting automation is more than just lights that turn on when someone enters the room. Today’s lighting technology can automatically adjust to different, pre-programmed circumstances like time of day, so it can feel like a professional lighting designer is at the dimmer without anyone having to make a manual adjustment. 

Temperature: Yes, it’s cold outside. But people are also bundled up. On top of their layers, the more people who flock to your space, the warmer it will be thanks to the body heat they will generate. 

Using sensor technology, building automation automatically adjusts the ambient temperature in real-time so you don’t have to. 

Airflow: Preventing stuffy, stale air is crucial in the winter months as air circulation is diminished and people spend more time inside. Airflow and gas detection are all taken care of in the background with a modern building automation system. 

Doors and accessibility: Whether it’s for someone with limited mobility like a wheelchair user, a busy parent pushing a stroller, or Santa with his hands full of shopping bags, automatic doors, and other accessibility features make your space welcoming to everyone. 

Security: From fire alarms to access control or high-resolution video capture, building automation plays a critical role in keeping your occupants safe. Cybersecurity software is also built into every Delta Controls product Kimco uses, adding layers of safety at every step. 

Preventative maintenance solutions

If you haven’t invested in a preventative maintenance plan, you’re doing your building — and your budget — a disservice. A quarterly maintenance plan is a regular check-up from our team, during which we work with your schedule to inspect your building’s systems and get ahead of any equipment issues. 

By planning regular maintenance, you avoid unexpected costly equipment failures, keep your building running smoothly, and glean the necessary information to budget for any future upgrades or replacements. Learn more about quarterly maintenance programs with Kimco. 

Keep your holiday stress down to which toy to pick from your child’s list by preparing your office for the holidays properly with Kimco Controls. 

Work with a people-first company that has been on the cutting edge of building automation, HVAC, and electrical technology in the Thompson-Okanagan for 40 years. See how Kimco can help.