Mitigating Office Risk from Heat Waves
Warm weather is generally welcome, but a heat wave that pushes temperatures above 40 degrees can prove dangerous in offices and other workplaces to employees and the equipment they need to do their jobs. The power grid is also at risk as the resultant electrical demands can lead to power outages. Here’s how to mitigate those risks.
Deciding What To Power

If you’re hoping to keep your workplace operating fully or partially during a heat wave, even if you lose power, some advance planning is required to mitigate risk.
First, decide what you want to keep running during a power outage. This might include:
- IT infrastructure and user devices—backup power for your server room will enable remote access
- Lighting - Offices can stay open if daylight provides enough illumination for employees to continue their usual duties. Backup power would be needed for other required areas such as washrooms.
- HVAC - If your HVAC has backup power but can’t provide sufficient cooling during a heat wave, prepare to shut down your building before it becomes too hot for employees.
- Door control - Verify what happens under power fail conditions to your building’s power-operated doors and the door to the underground parking lot. Make sure that you can get out, the fire department can get in and the doors aren’t left open to looters.
- The fridge in your staff room
Mitigating Risks
- First, you should ask your facility manager to regularly inspect your HVAC and energy systems to ensure that they can perform as required during heat waves.
- If your building already contains a backup generator, you should have it tested regularly, that is, at least twice a year. If it uses fuel from an onsite tank, make sure that the tank is full. Many backup generators are housed outside their buildings, so sturdy locked housing is recommended. Chicken wire is not enough.
- If you’re considering renewable energy resources (e.g. solar), ensure that they can they provide enough power for your needs. To find out, review their output statistics and work with your facilities manager to add them to your systems. Ensure that the recommended maintenance is completed each year.
A dangerous heat wave can force the closure of your building if an accompanying power outage knocks out your energy systems. In such cases, you should advise employees to find safe (that is, cooler) shelter after leaving your building, and not to tarry in excessively hot outdoor space. Distribute bottled water, and deliver the oft-repeated advice not to leave children and pets in parked vehicles.
Your emergency or disaster plan should include instructions for what you should do to protect your employees during heat waves as well as how to keep working, where feasible, during a power outage. It’s best to prepare for this now, rather than the day before meteorologists tell us that a heat wave will arrive.
If you’d like to comment on this article or explore these ideas further, contact me at guy.
This article was published in the
November 2023
edition of The TMC Advisor
- ISSN 2369-663X Volume:10 Issue:6
©2023 TMC Consulting