Focus: key parameters of the technical condition of the office

In order to choose a suitable office, it is not enough to know how many meters in it and what is the infrastructure of the office. It is important that it has all the conditions for the full work of the team.I will tell you what indicators you should pay special attention to future tenants.

The quality of the office determines its technical condition

Which technical parameters you are supposed to test first.

The most important and sometimes the most painful positions are air, water, heat and electricity. Pay special attention to these systems, as poor air exchange can negate the impression of the client from the most luxurious office, and the lack of light leads to an inevitable decrease in the efficiency of staff.

On our projects, we check the main parameters of life within the framework of technical expertise. It allows you to get an answer-whether the office is suitable for the tenant, whether the necessary standards are met and whether people can work in it.

You should study the technical parameters of the office before signing the lease. Once signed, all the problems of life support systems become an integral part of the life of the tenant.

Office water

The main issue is the quality of water supply in the system. Modern construction technologies allow to distribute it in different ways.

The water supply point can be arranged anywhere, except in cases limited by engineering and plumbing regulations. At the stage of preliminary assessment, it is important to find out the quality of water supply, the state of plumbing components and pipes. To do this, you need to look at the documentation for the office, examine the log of operation, planned replacements and repairs of communications. It will help to make a complete picture of the state of the office not only on the water, but also on other technical parameters.

The basis of life or what breathes office.

For normal operation, a comfortable atmosphere, well-established and maintained air exchange is important. There are standards of working spaces, which are the limit parameters and volumes for 1 person. Often, future tenants start only from them. But do not think that the calculations in the business centers produce in different ways. Someone uses the European system, someone considers on the General square footage.

take into account the common areas also when calculating the desired volume

Example. You have found a office that is suitable in size. It is perfectly placed staff and conference rooms and meeting rooms, and kitchen. The question for air supply and you give a figure of 5 thousand cubic meters of air. You divide the volume by the number of employees and get a match on the standard. Everything seems to be normal? But a good expert will immediately ask about common areas. Their needs in these calculations are not taken into account. Therefore, in order to assess the real volume, it is necessary to clarify how the air volume is considered by the landlord. Do not forget that the office is not only workplaces, but also halls, meeting rooms, kitchens and other premises.

What to do if" there is not enough air", that is, the volume of air exchange is less than necessary for comfortable work? There are several engineering solutions.

1. The simplest – daily ventilation. Windows open for a certain time to replenish oxygen. As a rule, employees do not like this simple and uncomplicated way and try to avoid it.
2. Ventilation system. There are low-mobility designs that help to strengthen the air exchange. Their cost is about 300 thousand rubles.
3. You can use technical tricks – redistribution of air flows, temporary reduction of air supply to the office and its direction to the right room and so on.

All these decisions require additional efforts, and even financial costs. If you want to avoid unnecessary fuss and costs, make a technical examination before entering into the contract . Experts will tell you exactly whether there is enough air for the full work of your company, taking into account the peculiarities of the business. At least you'll know exactly what you're signing up for.

Energy saving techniques will help to reduce electricity consumption

Electrical issue

Another important aspect of the technical condition of the office is the adequacy of the electricity supply. It would seem that there may be difficult, because electricity is everywhere. But imagine, the landlord allocates 30 kW / hour in a new office. How to understand whether this amount of electricity is enough or not for everyday office needs?

To do this, you need to analyze the daily life of the company. What employees use during the day, what they include in the summer, and what in the winter, work on laptops or desktop computers, how many mobile chargers are used, how many kettles, coffee makers, refrigerators and microwaves in the kitchen. Let's calculate the cost of electricity in our conditional office for 100 people.

• A desktop computer consumes 200 watts per hour. 100 computers-2 kW / h.
• Let's add server power, conditionally, 10 kW / h.
• In the kitchen there are three microwaves and three kettles, each consumes about 1 kW. This gives us another 6 kW for each hour of operation.
• 5 air conditioners each for 2 kW / h, and we got another 10 kW.
• The office uses incandescent lamps of 60 Watts. We consider all lighting fixtures and lamps in them and get another 3 kW/h from 50 bulbs.
• Five professional printers consume about 200 W/h (40 W/h each).

It turns out more than 31 kW / h. We will add charging for mobile phones, the habit of the chief accountant to use the boiler, the work of two refrigerators, heating the water in the coolers.

It is clear that no one uses microwave ovens and kettles 10 hours in a row, but we still expect the peak load on the maximum indicators.

So, according to our calculations, even in the first approximation, we do not have enough allocated 30 kW/hour.

In such cases, it is necessary to look for solutions to save electricity.

• Replace the incandescent lamps with led.
• Part of computers to replace laptops or energy saving stationary which consume not 200, and 150-180 watts.
• Instead of its own server, you can use the services of data-center.
• Reduce the amount of household appliances and replace old kettles and microwaves with energy-efficient models that consume 20-30% less energy.
• Refuse to heat the water in the coolers.

It is necessary to make decisions on the use of energy-saving technologies and devices at the planning stage, as their implementation may require a separate item in the budget.

Fire safety

Fire safety is a specific area where there are also surprises. The fact is that the Central stations that control the entire building and the rooms in it, have restrictions on the number of address recorders of all sensors and alarms. For example, only 5,000 sensors can be installed on a station and no more.

When we perform technical expertise for customers, we always require the landlord to provide us with official data on how many seats he has available at the station.

Check availability on a centralized console to avoid additional costs for your own station

For example, we need to supply 150 fire sensors according to the standards. We inform the landlord and ask him to confirm the availability of the required number of seats at the station. After moving, you may encounter the fact that the station will not be available, as all of them will already be occupied by the sensors of other tenants, if this is not done in a timely manner . In this case, you will have to install your fire station in the control center.

Good models cost 3-4 thousand dollars. This station needs to be programmed and put into operation, and as a result you get a budget overrun of 400-500 thousand rubles only because you did not find out the availability for sensors in time. In my experience, I will say that to pick up the installed substation from the control room is almost impossible, so do not entertain the illusion that it will remain with you when you move.

As you can see, the assessment of the technical condition of the building and premises consists of dozens of important details, which can not be called trifles. You can follow everything personally, but it is easier, faster and cheaper to order the appropriate service from experts.. So you will save time and budget of the project. You will not be disturbed by annoying household inconveniences, and you will be able to concentrate completely on development of the business in pure, warm and light office