We have all just sweated through a very hot summer heatwave, and some of the country is still on fire. However, now we move into fall we may need to think about how we keep our office as safe as possible in the winter. By safe, we mean warm. It’s never nice to be too hot, but that doesn’t mean that being cold is any better and when you are going to work all day every day you want to be comfortable, and you want your team to be comfortable.
In the middle of an energy crisis where prices are skyrocketing it can be difficult to want to make sure that your people are comfortable while also keeping your expenditure low. As a business, you will be using a lot of electricity, which means your costs are going to go up. You can invest in a good boiler service regularly to make sure that you are as efficient as possible but it’s not always going to be enough. Here are the best tips that we’ve got for keeping your office as warm as possible and keeping your team happy. You could also keep your energy costs down with these tips.
- Keep the heat in. When you are all in the office, shut the door. Don’t prop the door open through the winter months because you’re going to let all of the warmth out. Most of the time, more bodies in the office equals a warmer place to be, and that’s regardless of whether you have the heating on either. Closing the windows and the doors is an obvious way to keep warm cover but it’s really going to help you to retain the heat. Close any doors that lead to unoccupied rooms like kitchens or meeting rooms, and if you have ceiling fans make sure that the direction of the blades is reversed so that all the warmer air is being pushed downward.
- Set and lock the thermostat. There is nothing worse than having people turn up and down the thermostat all day long. Not only is that going to ruin your thermostat system, but it’s also not going to help keep the office warm. You want to keep your thermostat at a mild 18 degrees and encourage people to wear warm clothing to the office. You can also invest in extra heaters for those who are particularly cold in the winter but keeping the thermostat 18 means that the environment will be mild. Not too hot, not too cold.
- Throw open those window shades and let the sunshine in. If your office has lots of windows, then all the blinds and curtains need to be open till the sun shines a flood inwards. The extra sunlight won’t just hit the office, but it will make the place far less gloomy for staff to work in which makes people more productive. It can also help to shut the blinds as soon as the sun starts to go down to keep the heat that has poured through the windows in.
