“If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” can be a common refrain when it comes to decisions regarding decades-old HVAC control systems. However, while aging manual equipment—be it standalone electric thermostats or building-wide pneumatic designs—might be functional, it could still be creating a significant budget hit for building owners and operators.
The hidden cost of aging HVAC systems
The obvious financial downside to sticking with the status quo is simply high monthly running costs. Because old equipment offers minimal controllability, it’s often left in “set-and-forget” mode unless someone remembers to change it. This means it could be running 24/7, regardless of occupancy. This practice leads to wasted energy and needlessly expensive energy bills. But excessive energy use is just one of the ways an old installation can impact the bottom line:
- Legacy pneumatic valves and other connectors can fail without warning, leading to frequent hot/cold complaints from building occupants.
- When problems do occur, a lack of system visibility forces staff to chase down the source, often taking hours, only for new issues to potentially emerge soon after.
- Older systems require a particular expertise to run and maintain, which organizations could find challenging to staff as experienced technicians age out of the workforce.
Investing in upgraded controls can address all these issues, from costs to comfort, and free up facility staff to address priorities beyond solving frequent temperature complaints.
Aging buildings, new solutions
Because our attention is so easily drawn to new construction, it’s easy to overlook the fact that a large proportion of nonresidential U.S. buildings are aged. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 50% of the nation’s commercial buildings were constructed before 1980. Public K-12 schools have an average age of 49 years, and religious structures are the oldest of all. For these buildings, a recent informal survey on social media found a median age of 67, while the average age, heavily weighted by a significant number of significantly old buildings, was 92!
Of course, old buildings can have envelope problems that take priority when it comes to maintenance budgets. Replacing a leaking roof, for instance, will require immediate attention, given the potential damage that could result if it were ignored. However, while exterior issues are crucial to maintaining a building’s structure, its systems, particularly HVAC equipment and controls, are vital to ensuring its usability. And often these systems are left at the bottom of the list when it comes to budgetary priorities.
This is unfortunate because modernizations can pay for themselves in multiple ways over time, especially through the switch from manual thermostats and pneumatic controls to direct digital controls (DDC) that automate operations. These installations also enable greater visibility into how mechanical equipment is operating, making it easier to spot early warning signs and address issues before they become problems.
How advantages stack up
So, where do these opportunities for payback lie? Consider the ways life with your buildings could change with an HVAC controls upgrade:
- Reduced operating costs. DDC controls offer a great opportunity for reducing energy bills, thanks to their ability to automate operations based on room occupancy and building operating schedules. Old manual thermostats are often set and forgotten, so rooms (and even entire buildings) are heated and cooled as though they’re fully occupied all the time. Digital controls work with occupancy sensors and user-controlled scheduling to ensure space is conditioned only when needed. Then, the thermostats are automatically set back until the room is needed again.
- Lower maintenance manpower needs. New DDC controls don’t just monitor room occupancy; they also track operations throughout your entire HVAC system. Sensors attached to valves, air handling units, fans, and other critical equipment can become “manpower multipliers” by providing visibility into how those elements are working. When operations fall outside set parameters, alarming capabilities let facilities staff know where attention is needed before a hot/cold complaint is raised. (We’ve had one client see a 90% reduction in hot/cold calls following their DDC upgrade.) Additionally, when problems do arise, maintenance staff have a better idea of where to look, enabling them to spend significantly less time locating the problem and more time resolving it.
- Improved occupant comfort. Savings from this advantage might be harder to quantify, but the quality of life for building occupants certainly has an impact on how well they work and learn. No one likes coming to work not knowing whether they’ll need to add or subtract a sweater during the day. And improved building conditioning could make spaces like church common spaces and school gyms more attractive to local event planners.
Making it work
There’s no doubt that HVAC modernizations can be a big investment. But organizations have options that can help make financing these improvements easier, using the resulting savings to help pay the bill.
One approach is staging installations over time. So, for example, electric-to-pneumatic transducers can be used to help bring DDC oversight to existing pneumatic control systems. With this approach, a new electronic controller sends digital signals to a valve-connected transducer that then “translates” the signal into a mechanical open/close operation. The pneumatic equipment will still likely need replacement eventually. Still, this move can be part of a strategic plan to bank utility and maintenance savings to pay for a more extensive upgrade down the road.
Where to begin?
The first important step, regardless of the plan your organization is considering, is to initiate a conversation with HVAC controls professionals you can trust. Look for experts who emphasize relationships over one-time sales, because you’ll continue to need support even after new systems are commissioned. Change management will also need to be a part of this process. More than just learning a new equipment manual, facilities staff will need help understanding what their roles will be as new systems kick into operation. And other occupants might need help learning how life with automated, sensor-controlled HVAC will differ from the set-it-and-forget-it operations they’ve gotten used to.
In the end, though, these investments can help future-proof your buildings while also reducing their carbon footprints, as energy savings translate into reduced greenhouse-gas emissions. In these ways, adding automation to your HVAC operations is more than a way to cut energy costs–it’s a strategic investment in your buildings’ future.
Want to continue this conversation? Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.
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