I have the song “Feeling Hot Hot Hot” by the calypso band The Merrymen going through my brain. Summer is in full swing and temperatures are in the stupid hot range. It really makes me think of one thing: how resilient is your asset against this tiki torch of a summer? Are you prepared for success or failure in the summer heat?
The first question you need to ask yourself in making your asset resilient against the summer heat is…. you guessed it….”Do I have incandescent lighting anywhere inside?” Maybe you did not guess it, but you should fix it post haste. Ninety-five percent of the energy used for incandescent bulbs goes to heat and only 5% goes to light. To put this in our love language, for every dollar you spend paying your electric bill for lighting, only a nickel goes to light, ninety-five cents to heat. What is worse is that means you are heating your building and then running the air conditioner to cool it.
When we discuss incandescent lighting, let us not leave out MR-16 lamps which are those cute little track lights used to display art on the walls. There is an LED equivalent, so no retrofit is required to replace them. I have seen buildings that could never get cool in the summer in the hallways suddenly become comfortable after a lighting retrofit. This is also important as we are in our leasing season. You will improve your prospect’s first impression of your property with a comfortable interior corridor instead of one that is warm or, frankly, sweaty hot. Sweaty hot is only fun in a conga line.
The second question to ask yourself is what does my building envelope look like? When was the last time you refreshed the weather stripping on your doors? Do you need to seal any cracks around your windows? EPA indicates that 10% of conditioned air is lost to leaks in the built environment. Sealant is inexpensive and, if done correctly, hard to spot. Additionally, janky weatherstripping around your entrances is not enticing.
Back to our love language, if your energy bill for cooling is $1,000 per month, $100 of that is seeping out of your building through silent but deadly leaks. Or let us say the cash bar at the beach party is charging $10 per refreshing beverage served in a pineapple with a cute tiny umbrella in it. You just wasted ten pineapples! That is a terrible thing to waste.
Last low hanging coconut to consider: Maintaining your cooling units. When was the last time filters were replaced? Most of the time the in-unit fixtures only get attention upon turnover or if the resident places a maintenance request. Maybe implement Filter Friday where residents are notified, and a team member enters units and proactively replaces filters. Filters are much cheaper than repairs, replacements and, when it is hot hot hot, the hotel room you must provide the resident until their cooling unit can be replaced. Also make sure your condenser is clean since a clogged condenser can cause your unit to short cycle. This will use more energy and degrade the unit faster.
No matter how flexible your spine is, I suspect your budget for energy is not. As the steel pan drums of summer chime and we are feeling the beat, let us poise our properties to beat the summer heat.
