3 Types of Tenant Complaints You Can Prevent with an Energy Audit

Both tenants and building managers benefit from efficient systems

If you manage a residential or commercial building, maintenance requests and tenant complaints can be a huge headache. By understanding your building’s current energy usage and identifying areas of improvement, you can help eliminate some of the common complaints and requests, saving you time and improving tenant satisfaction.

Who is responsible for addressing specific maintenance tasks varies based on your lease agreement with tenants and what kind of building you manage. Let’s talk about some common types of work orders and how an energy audit can help address them.

Temperature Control Issues

Not much will irritate a tenant more than uncomfortable working or living conditions. Temperature control is a significant factor in this occupant comfort. By fine tuning your building automation system through an energy audit, you can improve occupant comfort while also reducing energy costs.

As part of an energy audit, we review the schedules and setpoints for your existing equipment. Our building control engineer identifies areas that have inappropriate settings (too high or too low) or times when temperatures could be set back to reduce equipment run time.

If your building controls are outdated, or if you only have temperature control via local thermostats, an energy audit can help determine the size and scope of a controls upgrade. A comprehensive controls upgrade can be a substantial investment, but it will deliver significant savings when it comes to equipment scheduling and optimization—not to mention, happier tenants.

 

Lighting Maintenance

A common recommendation that comes out of an energy audit is LED lighting upgrades. This is because LEDs use significantly less electricity than other lighting types and can result in a considerable cost savings.

LEDs also last much longer than other types of lighting—up to 100,000 hours, which is more than 12 times longer than incandescent or halogen bulbs and about 1.5 times longer than CFL bulbs. Overall, using LED lights results in fewer requests for replacements.

An added benefit for tenants is the flexibility LEDs offer, especially when it comes to adjusting light levels. If dimmers are included as part of an LED upgrade project, individuals can adjust the light levels in their spaces to maximize productivity and enhance comfort, which can help reduce all sorts of other complaints.

 

Equipment Failures

Are your tenants often submitting work orders for equipment malfunctions or broken equipment? Do you have various outdated systems across your properties that add complexity for maintenance staff?

As part of an energy audit, we evaluate your HVAC, lighting, and building controls systems. This helps us find issues with your equipment and identify where you may be wasting energy as time goes on. By catching these issues, we can save you money on your utility bills and advise where to invest in new equipment, which in turn helps address complaints tenants likely have.