Charging tenants for after-hours air conditioning (AHAC) presents many difficult questions for FMs. How do I calculate an hourly rate? How do I separate after-hours billing from normal utility OPEX? Do I have enough resources and staff? Calculating and managing after-hours HVAC is complex, and some FMs choose to forgo charging tenants to avoid the hassle. Instead, they raise “maintenance fees” or other charges to cover the extra electricity.
If this describes your situation, there’s a good chance you’re falling short of recouping the full cost of your operating expenses. Plus, you may be missing out on other “softer” benefits associated with charging for AHAC services. Here are five reasons to start an after-hours HVAC program today.
1. After-Hours kWh Are Usually Peak Load Times
Most leases list “operating hours” for the work week at 8:00 am to 6:00 pm or something similar. This leaves evenings open for tenants to schedule after-hours HVAC (along with Sundays and holidays). However, peak hours for electricity also occur in the evenings, especially in the summer months. Peak hours or on-peak times are when you’re paying the highest price per kWh to run your HVAC system. So, tenants using after-hours AC in the evenings are consuming current at a premium. Even if you’re charging a general CAM fee or “admin fee” to cover the added energy costs, it may not be enough to offset these higher peak demand prices. And if you’re not charging at all, you’re certainly cutting into your profits.
2. AHAC Charges Encourage Energy Conservation
For seasoned FMs, it’s no secret that charging pro-rata rates for electricity doesn’t encourage conservation among your tenants. Absent a green lease or submetering, tenants show less incentive to save energy with pro-rata billing. Why put in the effort to save 10% per month if the savings will be split among everyone in the building? But an effectively managed after-hours HVAC program can counter this attitude. It works like a type of sub metering. Tenants are responsible for only their share of kWh used, and they are billed as such each month or quarter. This encourages them to bring down their electrical consumption to lower operating costs.
3. New Hybrid Workspaces Demand It
As the COVID pandemic begins to subside, companies are asking remote workers to return to the office. But some employees are pushing back, instead, demanding more flexible schedules. The expectation is that many employees will split their time between home and the office. These new work approaches will broaden normal operating hours and pressure FMs to adapt. Thus, the demand for “amenities” like after-hours HVAC will become necessities. By starting your after-hours program now, you’ll make the transition easier for your staff and clients.
4. It May Improve Your NABERS Rating
If you want an accurate assessment of your property to secure a NABERS Energy and Water rating, you’ll want to include any after-hours air conditioning (AHAC) requests. To rate your building’s efficiency, a NABERS assessor needs to calculate your total rated hours. First, he or she will calculate the power consumed during normal operating hours (ex. 8:00 am to 6:00 pm). Next, the assessor will add any qualifying AHAC requests to the total. However, requests must record the date, time and space. Simply handing the assessor a spreadsheet with the “total hours run” for the year won’t work. As a result, your AHAC hours data may be skewed or not counted. Inaccurate or omitted data lowers your efficiency rating, but an after-hours HVAC program will account for every kWh.
5. It’s Easy to Automate
Just the thought of adding a separate utility billing process to their weekly tasks is enough to turn many FMs off of charging for AHAC. It’s a legitimate concern. Manual scheduling and billing programs do require staff resources, time and spreadsheets to function. However, today’s after-hours HVAC apps automate the bulk of the process, leaving you with time to focus on your properties. Tenants use a mobile app or web browser to make after-hours HVAC bookings. The app then integrates with your BMS to carry out the request. Monthly billing is also automated, so recording mistakes are minimised and time management is maximised.
Scheduling after-hours AC can be an expensive and cumbersome process. It’s usually a mishmash of spreadsheets, sticky note reminders, voice mails, and impatient tenants — all trying to accomplish a task made overly complicated by a manual process. At home, we flick on the thermostat, but at work, this simple act can become a bureaucratic quagmire involving multiple team members. How can FMs and property managers cut the cost and red tape? With an after-hours automated HVAC program that puts the scheduling literally in the hands of tenants.
How Does HVAC Automation Work?
Much like customers who order on-demand movies, tenants “order” their after-hours HVAC as they need it — this could be two months prior or two hours before. Authorized tenants use an after-hours HVAC smartphone app or web browser to make their booking from anywhere at any time. The app then connects to your building’s BMS to schedule and execute the request per the specified time, date, floor and property location. The program then notifies the tenant and property manager via an email, listing the total charge based on the agreed hourly rate.
Automation Eliminates the Niggly Bits
Automation streamlines after-hours scheduling by eliminating many of the steps and hurdles of a manual process. Staff members no longer need to take and record requests via email, phone or work order. Maintenance personnel can forgo manually programming requests into the BMS. Managers can skip time consuming maintenance of spreadsheets (automated billing statements are delivered via email each month). And tenants save time filling out requests and making changes to their bookings.
Calculate The Savings
Depending on the complexity of your current program, the amount of time saved through after-hours HVAC automation could lower staffing costs for your portfolio. Let’s say you estimate each after-hours request currently takes thirty minutes to fulfill, and you complete twenty requests per month. That equals ten hours of labor cost. With an average staff wage of $30 per hour, you’re paying $300 a month just to manage after-hours bookings, and that doesn’t include your tenants’ time.
Billing Accuracy
Automation software is perfect for recording overtime air conditioning bookings because it’s highly accurate. Your team members, despite their best efforts, can become overwhelmed with other responsibilities. Mistakes happen. The wrong tenant is charged or a cancellation order is misplaced. Not only do mistakes like these create dissatisfied tenants, they often result in a loss of revenue for you. When a booking is forgotten or goes unrecorded, you’ll be eating the utility costs. When there’s a discrepancy in charges, getting payment takes more time sorting things with a (now upset) tenant. After-hours HVAC automation ensures billing speed and accuracy, helping you avoid these situations while keeping profits high.
Conclusion
After-hours billing should be a simple process, but it’s full of variables that complicate matters. Even if your manual ordering and billing is spot on, there are hundreds of situations that call for a more nuanced approach. Each tenant has different needs. While some may have predictable work schedules, others may be seasonal. Making things more complicated are the rise in hybrid workplaces and work-home schedules, which demand increased flexibility and access to facilities. Overall, FMs must take a more nuanced approach to utility billing in general. Automation prepares you for future workplaces by simplifying and streamlining your after-hours HVAC scheduling process.
The move to smart buildings is here, and with it the demand for “smart power.” Innovations in wireless technology, monitoring hardware and cloud-based data are all making energy management systems a must have for FMs. Energy management ensures true power digitalisation—a state where every watt is recorded, stored and used to make informed, real time decisions about a building’s power usage.
One key component to power digitalisation is the energy power management system (EPMS). An EPMS is a specialized software that works as the “brains” for your energy monitoring strategy, giving you a broad look of your overall grid along with insights into every connected electrical asset. Here are a few ways an EPMS brings value to your properties.
Lower Electrical Costs
Because an energy management system provides transparency into your power consumption, you can lower energy costs by identifying ways to optimise your electrical usage. For example, use an EPMS to locate your biggest energy consuming assets. Then switch run times to off-peak hours when electrical rates are lower. Audit your current usage in low demand areas to see if you can cut waste completely by installing motion sensitive lighting or switching to automated HVAC scheduling. All this new energy efficiency will also help raise your power factor rating, and your provider may offer a discount if your rating is above average for your area.
Useful power is the energy that actually does work. Demand power is the amount of electricity delivered to your facility. Your power factor is the ratio of your useful power to your demand power. The higher the better.
Increased Equipment Lifespans
Advanced equipment and technologies within many sectors (e.g., healthcare and IT) are becoming more sensitive to power fluctuations. Complex equipment also requires a consistent energy supply to function properly. Insufficient or inconsistent power supplies significantly impact their lifespan. Therefore, electrical supply monitoring is critical to avoiding damaged assets. Modern EPMS software warn staff to power quality issues like power sags, swells and harmonics before failure or harm occurs.
Reduced Carbon Emissions
In addition to cost savings, optimising your energy efficiency also lowers your carbon footprint and makes your more competitive. Properties with hybrid-grids can use their EPMS to identify the best times to switch to cheaper, greener energy supplies like solar, wind or battery. And because energy management systems benchmark your consumption, reporting on energy reduction and savings against targets is more accurate. That makes your efforts more sustainable over time.
Power Event Tracking
When the power does go out, it can sometimes be difficult or impossible to determine the cause. You may only have a few seconds to troubleshoot the issue before it happens. And your electrical provider may try and place the blame on your property. Flying blind to power events leaves you vulnerable to hefty fines for blown transformers and labor costs. But the accuracy of an EPMS can track your system down to the individually connected device. It records every power event with your grid, so you’ll have documented proof when the power company shows up if you’re to blame.
Expanding Your Energy Grid
Not only does an EPMS warn you if you’re exceeding the capacity of your circuits, it forecasts if a new renovation or piece of equipment will push you past safe limits. Historical data of your electric usage and top-down views of current load capacities help managers and engineers easily determine their wattage budget for any area. This can be critical when updating to more efficient equipment or more robust units with larger amperage ratings.
Conclusion
As the old saying goes, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” But too often managers and owners still see power as a fixed expense, something measured primarily by the end-of-month cost. But today’s wireless technology and the IoT have transformed energy consumption and distribution into a flexible outlay that can (and should) be adjusted to meet an ever-changing supply and demand. Smart buildings run on smart power, and smart FMs who get ahead of the game by adopting energy management systems can increase the value of their portfolios for owners and tenants.
Few employees have more of an impact on the day-to-day operations of your business than your office manager. Whether it’s scheduling travel arrangements, ordering supplies or planning a birthday party, your office manager touches every part of your business. And while he or she genuinely appreciates the occasional meeting “shoutout” or $50 gift card, what your office manager really wants are tools to make their job easier. Office automation tools to the rescue. These apps and online services will have them getting more done with less effort.
Employee Scheduling Apps
Many companies now offer employees the option to work from home or a more flexible work schedule. That’s great for the employees, but keeping track of these hybrid schedules has made it harder on your office manager. Workforce management tools like Robin let office managers control and track which employees require office access and what resources they need. Management platforms take the burden off the office manager’s hands by automating the process, letting employees book their own desks and rooms when needed.
Project Management Software
Office managers wear many hats and manage many projects, and keeping up is a daunting task. Make it easier by getting your office manager some handy project management software. These helpful online tools not only let users track the progress of multiple projects, they also allow collaboration with project team members. PM apps like Trello or Asana are good options, but there are many more out there. Both apps have freemium pricing plans, which puts limits on features like the number of collaborators, but managers at least get to try them out at no cost..
Social Media Management
Does your office manager oversee all your social media pages? Then they need a social media management platform. Apps like Hootsuite are great for managing multiple accounts at once like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter while others like Tailwind work well for specific platforms. With most apps, you can schedule posts, create ads and run analytics on your traffic. Some even alert you when someone mentions your company online. Social management apps are low cost and well worth the time saved.
Travel Planning Software
Even travel bookings and management are a part of today’s automated office. And with lockdowns and flight cancelations a regular hurdle, it helps to have a tool to manage last minute changes. Apps like TravelPerk or TripActions simplify travel bookings, letting your employees schedule their own flights, lodging and transport from their smartphones. Your travel data is centralized and checked, so you know exactly what’s happening at all times. Plus, most travel apps integrate with your expense account software, which streamlines the approval process. Look for time-saving features like platform AI that reschedules canceled or delayed flights automatically. These apps cut down planning time while improving transparency between managers and employees.
Automated Employee Gifting
Any office manager will tell you that recognizing birthdays, new babies and working anniversaries take time to plan and execute. But you can offload that task with employee gifting services like Evabot or Gifted.co. These services make sending employee gifts as simple as a few mouse clicks, and, like most automated platforms, they help manage and centralize all your purchases into one place. So, you’re making your CFO happy too! Employee recognition helps you retain valuable employees, so it’s a critical part of your business. But saying “Thank you!” doesn’t have to include the cost of your manager’s time.
After-Hours AC Automation
When your employees need to schedule after-hours electricity or HVAC on the weekends, it’s likely your office manager’s job to record and schedule it with your landlord—just another spreadsheet they need to manage. Apps like 7NOX automate utility scheduling by letting employees book their own after-hours air conditioning via their mobile phone. The app also cuts down on billing errors by accurately recording each booking’s date, time and duration. No more misunderstandings with your facilities manager or disputed charges. Plus, your office manager can trash their spreadsheet.
Technology has been reshaping both hard and soft services for years, but COVID-19 has accelerated that process. Owners and managers of larger portfolios tend to be early tech adopters—passing the efficiency and effectiveness on to their customers—but in a post-COVID world, SMBs and late adopters are finding themselves moving to CAFM systems to meet new regulations and tenant expectations. While new FM tools and adoption rates will vary from property to property, the overall result will be a bigger injection of digital tools and automation software into the FM toolbox because of COVID-19. Here are the biggest tech trends in the “new normal” of post-COVID facility management.
Workspace Management Systems
Social distancing requirements have foregrounded the need for workspace management. While some workers are eager to return to the office, others are hesitant, fearing infection. Managers from hospitals to highrises are pondering the best ways to keep occupants safe while avoiding costly building redesigns. Workspace management software will be a cost-effective solution to help this process. These specialized apps work with your BIM software to provide an overview of your entire portfolio’s floor plan. More importantly, they let you easily reconstruct spaces and experiment with new seating arrangements and easily identify and upcycle wasted space.
Coworking Space Tools
Hybrid work models are a growing trend in the post-pandemic workplace. In the U.S. 52% of workers now say they prefer splitting their work between home and the office, according to a 2021 study. Coworking office spaces are likely to fill the demand for more flexible, hybrid workspaces that accommodate workers moving in and out of the office. These shared spaces let workers save money by splitting the costs of rent, utilities, equipment and the like. Scheduling software for conference rooms and flexible workstations are essential for efficient resource utilization. Coworkers also need group calendars for planning shared events, and tenants can easily split utility costs by adopting an automated after-hours HVAC booking app.
Touchless Entry
To reduce cross contamination FMs will adopt more technologies that eliminate the touching of shared surfaces. Touchless visitor management systems like scanners, mobile apps or voice recognition help minimize contact with reception and kiosks. Instead of encountering a real person, visitors can scan a QR code with their smartphone or use a sign in app to gain building access. Hosts are then notified via email, SMS or voice call. Concerns around contamination are also pushing adoption of biometrics like voice and face recognition, which ensure more security and accuracy.
Occupancy Management
Occupancy management is a must for ensuring the safety and security of your customers and complying with thresholds. For large portfolios with hundreds of entry points, stationing personnel at entries and exits is costly and inaccurate. Plus, it places them in closer physical contact with others, which defeats the purpose. Instead, FMs are choosing occupancy software to manage visitor flow, which when integrated with touchless entry systems, provides an added value—occupancy tracking. By tracking occupants’ smartphones via bluetooth, FMs can run reports on total occupancy or filter by specific floor, zone or entry point.
Conclusion
Humans are the major “problem” when it comes to spreading viruses and worsening pandemics. Therefore, it’s not surprising that most of these post-COVID tech trends deal with the monitoring and management of human behavior. Yes, improving building ventilation is still important, as is ensuring sanitized surfaces and properly trained janitorial services. But, it’s the management of human behavior, the creation of safe communal spaces and the adoption of touchless tech that will bring the most security and best ROI. Still, monitoring of employees inevitably runs into privacy issues, and push back from unions and advocacy groups is (understandably) expected. To this end, FMs will need to balance privacy rights for the individual with the safety needs of the group in the future.
Tenant satisfaction surveys help you spot problem areas with your properties and services, but some facility managers put off creating and administering them because of time restraints. But it only takes a few minutes to create an effective tenant questionnaire if you follow these steps.
Download Free Survey Template
Building a tenant survey should only take around 15 mins max, and it’s free if you use Google Forms. Here’s a free survey template 7Nox designed specifically for commercial property owners. It contains questions around maintenance, property condition and customer service. But you can customize the template to suit your needs. Here’s how to use it:
Click the link above.
Choose to “Make a copy” of the template.
Open the template copy from your Google Drive (you will need a Google account).
Add your property name and photo (optional) in the heading.
Change, add or remove questions to fit your needs.
Voila! You’re ready to email your customized opinion poll to your tenants and gain some powerful feedback. Here’s a getting started guide if you’re new to Google Forms.
Survey Tips
The more participation, the more accurate your picture of your properties. As with most surveys, people who actually take the time to fill one out are usually either big fans or disgruntled. But getting only 5 stars and 1 star reviews is less constructive than a healthy chunk of middle-of-the-road opinions. So, follow these guidelines to raise the participation rate of your tenant satisfaction survey.
Brevity Helps
Few people enjoy filling out satisfaction surveys, but keeping your survey short increases participation. Add as many questions as you need to get the info you want, but stop there. Combine multiple ideas into one question. For example, ask one question about all your amenities, don’t draft a question for each. If you’re interested in getting feedback on a single amenity (e.g., workout room), then draft a separate survey.
Offer a Carrot
Offering free gift cards or other enticements increases tenant participation. It may seem like bribery, but at some point the value of more tenant input outweighs the cost. That is, if identifying problems and making tenants happy results in at least one re-sign, it will likely be worth the outlay.
Optimize Timing
Schedules vary, but try and survey tenants when they have a little extra time, maybe before a holiday or Friday afternoon. More people will fill it out if they have a moment. Aim for one survey a year, and send it out near the beginning. Also, avoid surveying new tenants and those about to leave. Newcomers have too little experience to be valuable, while those leaving have little stake in the outcome and are less likely to fill one out anyway. Finally, get someone to take your survey before you send it out to tenants.
