How to measure your commercial air con energy efficiency

Introducing the Calculating Cool online tool

Considering today’s high electricity costs, knowing your commercial air con energy efficiency should be a priority for you as a business owner. With the right information, you’ll be better placed to find energy saving solutions for your business.

But where do you begin? What tools are available online for you to use to better monitor and control your air con’s performance? In this news post, Jaric’s air con experts introduce an online energy calculator that can help.

The need for energy efficiency in commercial environments

Did you know that today, air conditioning systems typically account for around 50% of the energy usage in buildings? What’s more, they represent more than 50% of the potential energy-efficiency improvements that could be made – and that’s especially the case in commercial buildings.

The Australian Government has been working to provide business owners with useful energy usage measuring tools. These online resources may save your business thousands of dollars on energy.

The Calculating Cool online HVAC rating tool

Calculating Cool is a free online tool that measures how efficient your building’s HVAC (Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system is. It also aims to correctly rank different systems and identify potential areas for improvement.

The tool has been developed by AIRAH in partnership with the Property Council of Australia (PCA), the Facilities Management Association of Australia (FMAA), and the Air-conditioning and Mechanical Contractors’ Association (AMCA).

Using an online energy usage calculator such as Calculating Cool can be practical, effective and cost-effective. With a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures across the design, installation and operational phases of the air con life cycle, the tool can basically have a great impact on the way you understand energy efficiency as a business owner.

Why use Calculating Cool?

  • A particular focus on a building’s HVAC system performance
  • It’s a free online tool, useful for building owners, managers, and air conditioning professionals
  • Assess your commercial air con energy efficiency as simply as possible
  • Identify potential opportunities for improvement through tuning, upgrades, behaviour change, or monitoring.

What data will you need?

  • Sub-metered energy consumption for the HVAC system only, for 12 continuous months; alternatively, you may use the base building energy consumption
  • Predicted annual energy consumption (for HVAC system only)
  • Energy efficiency aspects of the HVAC system configuration
  • Other additional information in regards to documentation and user satisfaction

Calculating Cool will provide you with a report based on the information you provided. Usually, this includes a quantitative rating table comparing the building’s performance against best practice, as well as attribute ratings.

Find out more about commercial air conditioning

If you need any air conditioning services, call Jaric Air Conditioning at 1300 452 742 or get in touch online for personalised advice and solutions for your business.