How to Boost Efficiency in Multifamily Units

There’s no getting around it – Energy costs and utility bills can be major sources of financial strain for families and property managers of multifamily units. Property owners of multifamily buildings sometimes carry the cost of utilities for tenants. However, even when they don’t, there are still costs associated with lighting in common areas, heating and cooling in lobbies and offices, and energy costs associated with maintenance issues.

Thankfully, there are ways of reducing energy expenses while making multifamily properties energy efficient. If you’re looking to save money and reduce your energy usage, below are some easy ways to improve energy efficiency in multifamily properties:

Install Smart Automation Solutions

Installing smart home automation solutions is one of the most effortless ways to improve energy efficiency in multifamily units. Smart home solutions like smart thermostats can be automated to adjust based on certain conditions, and they can also be monitored and controlled remotely.

You can also install smart lighting if you’re looking for efficient upgrades to both interior and exterior lighting around a multifamily property. Smart lights can be programmed according to a schedule you set, and virtually all are available as LED lights, which offer much greater energy savings than traditional lighting options. This can save energy during different seasons by setting smart home automation systems to adjust settings based on changing temperatures or available daylight.

Many smart home automation devices and systems also provide feedback about energy usage. You can view this information from your smartphone, allowing you or your tenants to make informed decisions about energy consumption.

Perform Inspections Regularly

Regular inspections can also be ways to improve energy efficiency in multifamily buildings. This is particularly true if you have older HVAC systems, electrical components, and plumbing. As time goes by, home systems wear out eventually, and they lose energy efficiency. Regular inspections help you to find and fix small problems before they turn into disasters, and inspections can also identify areas where improvements can be made to reduce waste while reducing energy costs.

Maintenance can also be part of a construction safety plan when building onto a multifamily property. Factoring in things like air sealing can help maintain the integrity of buildings for years to come. In addition, thinking about efficiency and safety during the construction process helps mitigate problems with HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems that could turn into fires and floods in the future.

Implement Tenant Education Programs

In some cases, tenants may not realize just how much energy they are using, especially in common areas or outdoor areas of multifamily units. This can result in wasting energy and cost more for property owners and tenants themselves. Shared spaces like gyms, kitchens, bathrooms, and more can be sources of energy waste when water or lighting is left running, and unreported issues like running toilets or leaking faucets can go unaddressed for days, weeks, or longer. When tenants are not aware of the costs associated with energy waste, they may not realize just how important it is to be mindful of.

To help improve energy efficiency and reduce energy costs, consider developing a tenant education program that seeks to provide insightful information about energy savings in a friendly, easy-to-understand manner. You can develop educational materials in the form of hand-outs or newsletters, informative videos, community meetings, and in-person presentations. These programs can provide helpful tips to tenants to alert them to the costs of wasting energy and offer information about ways to reduce waste.

Even if tenants pay for their energy costs, offering educational material about ways to improve efficiency helps communities and the planet. By reducing unnecessary energy consumption, there’s less demand for fuel to create electricity, and this also reduces greenhouse gases produced in the processing of electricity.

Monitor Your Usage and Look for Anomalies

It can also be helpful to monitor energy usage closely to find where you can gain efficiency. You probably already look at your properties’ energy costs when paying energy bills each month, but if you aren’t completing a month-to-month or year-over-year comparison, you may be missing the bigger picture. While it may be helpful to request utility bills from previous cycles to compare them, you may want to use AI software instead.

Today’s AI software for property managers can take data from your utility bills, complete an analysis, and, based on its findings, provide you with tips to reduce energy usage. This saves time over having to manually go through bills and write out comparisons, and the software may be able to find ways to save energy and money that you wouldn’t have found otherwise.

As a bonus, some AI property management software is available through cloud-based applications, meaning you don’t have to download, install, or maintain any software. Instead, you simply upload your energy billing data to the cloud, where it is processed and stored for access from your work computer, home computer, or smart device.

Upgrade to High-Efficiency Fixtures

Upgrading fixtures to high-efficiency models are also among the top ways to improve energy efficiency in multifamily properties. For example, a high-efficiency tankless water heater heats water as it is needed, meaning there’s no hot water storage tank that needs to be continually heated. This saves energy and money while also providing property owners with a selling point that can be used to market multifamily properties to prospective tenants.

High-efficiency air conditioning systems like ductless mini-splits can also help reduce waste since they only cool the air in specific zones. A central AC unit needs to run for longer to cool an entire dwelling. Still, you can improve energy efficiency while providing greater control over indoor comfort when you upgrade your cooling systems to include ductless mini-splits.

As mentioned above, LED lighting is much more efficient than traditional incandescent lighting, and LED light bulbs can last for many years before they need to be replaced. Even replacing the bulbs themselves instead of the entire light fixture can go a long way toward becoming more energy efficient, but upgrading both fixtures and bulbs can provide even more savings in most cases.

Contact West Coast Decking & Waterproofing to Learn How We Can Help

At West Cost Decking & Waterproofing, our experienced pros provide waterproofing for balconies, planters, below-grade exterior areas, and more. Our team offers solutions to property managers that can be part of a comprehensive plan to improve multifamily properties for owners and tenants.