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Managing Business Risks in a Heatwave

19th July 2022

Minimising Risks Through a Heatwave

With the UK preparing to see some of its hottest temperatures on record this week, it’s our job to advise our customers and prepare them for the risks that they could face.

Having air conditioning in your business is a great start to keeping both your staff cool and your processes running. However, remember that your equipment will be in overdrive in extreme hot weather trying to keep the temperature low.

The areas that are kept cool using HVAC equipment can include:

  • Staff – Your staff and their wellbeing are essential to the running of your business. In extreme heat you have a duty of care to ensure they are not at risk.
  • Server Rooms – If you have servers on site, it’s important that they keep cool. Any overheating of your servers could cause real disruption to your business.
  • Machinery – If you are a manufacturer with process cooling as part of your production, your business could be halted if there is downtime in the cooling equipment.

Here are some tips to ensure your equipment gets through some of the toughest moments:

Regular Maintenance

Make sure your equipment is regularly maintained by a qualified and experienced HVAC contractor like EMS Ltd. This will allow us to identify any parts that might be at risk when the pressure is on. We will advise you on whether it’s best to repair or replace the units before it’s too late in order to minimise disruption to your business.

Temporary Cooling

Think about the areas of your business that are extremely vulnerable to the heat and would cause issues for your business if they could not run. For example this could be server room cooling equipment. In these areas, think about temporary cooling units that could be put in place in case your current air conditioning equipment fails. Your contractor should advise you of the possibility and need for extra cooling units.

Complementary Heatwave Strategies

In some areas such as offices, make sure you don’t just rely on the air conditioning. Complement your air conditioning with other strategies to keep your staff cool. These could include relaxing the dress code, providing cold drinks and allowing more flexible working to ensure not too many people are in the office at one time.

Getting the Right Equipment

Speak to your contractor about looking at the current design of your air conditioning and whether it’s still suitable. You may have inherited your current system when moving to a new building or the internal layout has changed along with number of people over the years. Changes like these can affect the suitability of your equipment. Your HVAC contractor can calculate what your current needs are and whether modifications or a new system is needed.

Final Words

With global warming, it’s likely that we will see more extreme weather in the future. It’s important that you have a proactive HVAC contractor that will guide you through your risks and help you to manage them. EMS Ltd have industry expertise and experience to help our customers get through heatwave challenges.

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01432 340 800 Contact us