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Schedules

A building's week has 168 hours. How many is anyone there?

Heating and cooling a building when it's empty is the most common waste we find — usually because a schedule was never set, or was set years ago for different tenants. Pick a building type and see its week.

Occupied hours, week by week

Each row is a day, each square an hour from midnight to midnight. Red squares are hours with people in the building.

Office: Monday to Friday, 7am to 6pm.
Example schedules. Your building's will differ.

55hours occupied

113hours that can be set back

Shown: an office open Monday to Friday, 7am to 6pm.

The counts are simple arithmetic on the example schedule — not a prediction of your energy savings, which depend on the building, the equipment and the weather.

What a good schedule does

Comfortable at 8am, not running at 3am.

Setback when empty: Temperatures allowed to drift overnight and at weekends, within limits that protect the building.
Start early enough: Units start before people arrive so the building is comfortable at opening, not an hour later.
Fresh air only when occupied: Outdoor air is brought in when people are there, not heated and cooled for an empty room.
Holidays set in advance: Closures entered for the year, so a long weekend doesn't run at full comfort.
An override button: Someone working late presses it and gets two hours, then the building goes back to setback.

A programmable commercial thermostat on the corridor wall of an office, its screen unreadable, a glass meeting room behind

What we check

The schedule you have, and the one you need.

A technician with a laptop connected to a controls panel in a small mechanical room, screen not readable — Thermostat or building controls — the schedule lives in one of them.

An open-plan office at night with the desks empty and only the exit signs and a few lamps lit — An empty office at 10pm should not be at daytime temperature.

What's programmed

Every thermostat or controller, read and written down — including the ones nobody remembers.

What the building does

Your real hours, cleaning crews, deliveries and the one team that works Saturdays.

What we change

A schedule agreed with you, set on every unit, and written into the service report.

Businesses

Where it matters most

Offices, clinics and churches — buildings with clear hours and long empty stretches.

Homes

The same idea at home

A programmable or smart thermostat set to when you're out and asleep. We set it up when we install or service a system.

Check your schedule

We'll read what's programmed.

On any maintenance visit, or as a site visit on its own.

Request a site visit (512) 615-2457