Summer 2023: what are the alternatives to air conditioning in the workplace?

As part of Act 2 of the energy sobriety plan for summer 2023, the French Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, has asked companies to pay attention to energy expenses relating to building ventilation, and in particular recommended not using air conditioning below 26 degrees.

Alric Marc, founder of EFICIA, a company specializing in energy management for commercial buildings, explains: “Occupants tend to ask for 23°C air conditioning in summer. However, we have carried out studies showing that the impact of temperature on behavior and comfort only begins to be felt at 25.5°C“.

“On average, the energy-saving potential of an average store amounts to 20% of its consumption. 30 to 40% of these savings can be made on air conditioning in summer, without impacting on the comfort of its occupants.“

Among the various levers that physical points of sale can deploy to avoid abusing air conditioning, we can cite “free cooling”. This consists in cooling a building with outside air, when its temperature is lower than that of the inside air.

In parallel, the EFICIA teams share a few best practices for transforming companies into a greener, more sustainable energy efficiency model:

• Control air conditioning according to the weather, activity schedules and the building’s thermal inertia. For example, turn off the air conditioning 1 hour before closing to the public.
• Change lighting that is not yet LED.
• Install presence sensors to control lighting in reception, break and passage areas.
• Turn off interior lighting when buildings are closed, and reduce exterior lighting, especially for advertising.
• Install power strips with switches for all workstations, plug in devices that remain on standby (screens, chargers, individual ECLs, wifi relays, etc.) and switch them off each evening when you leave.
• Concentrate staff working in open-plan offices, to free up areas that don’t need to be cooled or lit on busy days.