Making Your Business Beautiful

Hiring A Commercial Architectural Designer? 2 Ways They Can Design Your Business To Save Energy

11 March 2019

Mia Price

If you are hiring a commercial architectural designer to design your new building, they can offer you many services. One of these services is to design the building in a way that that you can save in energy costs. Below are two ways the architect can do this so you can discuss this information with this professional.

Use Daylighting

Daylighting involves placing windows and other exterior openings, as well as reflective surfaces, to help you have better internal lighting without using electrical lighting.

The architect will first measure the luminescence and then do a daylight calculation to help them determine how they can design the building in this way. The architect uses a computer program to make these calculations. This can tell them where to place windows and skylights to take the most advantage of where the sun rises and sets each day. Besides this, reflective surfaces will be installed to direct sunlight into a certain area of the room.

The commercial architectural designer can also teach you about daylight harvesting. This involves installing electrical lights that have automatic dimmers, or lights that automatically shut off after a person leaves a room after a certain period.

Use Solar Power

The architect may suggest using solar power instead of electricity. This uses much less energy and you can also harvest energy to be used when the solar panels cannot provide you with enough power.

There are different types of commercial solar systems you can choose from for your building. For example, flat rooftop systems are one option you have. This will depend on the construction method the architect uses, however. There are two different types of flat rooftop systems. One type is known as the attached system. This type connects to the framing of the building and makes penetrations in the roof surface to attach the solar panels. Another option is ballasted system, which relies on the weight of the energy system to hold the solar panels down. There are also hybrid systems that use a combination of attached and ballasted systems.

The architect can also use solar panels if they are designing a slanted roof for your commercial building. This will work well not matter what type of shingles you purchase, such as wood, composition, or metal shingles. These types of solar panels are not available in ballasted systems. Because of this, penetrations will have to be made into the roof's surface in order to install this type of system.

Talk with the commercial architectural design company that you hire about other ways they can design your building to save on energy costs.

Share