Well, Melbourne’s certainly been feeling the heat in the past few weeks… with above average temperatures for November, summer has announced it’s here!
And while we’re all enjoying the relief of the colder (and wetter!) conditions in between the pockets of heat, these cooler days are great for getting your workplace prepared for the heat of January and February.
Prepping your workplace isn’t just good for your business, but important for your staff and visitors health. Put simply, it makes good sense to be heat-ready, so we’ve put together a short checklist to help out.
Stay Fire Safe
A workplace fire can happen at any time of the year, but are more common throughout the warmer months. Ensure your fire extinguishers, fire hose reels, and sprinkler systems are maintained and operational, that your staff and visitors know how to evacuate the building and find an assembly point and that all smoke alarms and back to base monitoring systems are working.
Creating Shade and Lowering Energy Bills
If your business operations are office-based, it’s good to think about how heat is entering your building. Most loss of cooling efforts from air-conditioning happens through windows and doors, so shading windows inside with heavy blinds and outside with shade cloth or shutters can save you big bucks on your energy bill and reduce your carbon footprint. Make sure your doors are sealed properly – if there are gaps, they can be easily closed with some weather seal strips. Just this one simple step can save you 35-50% of your cooling being lost, according to Sustainability Victoria.
Keep Staff and Visitors Heat Safe
It might sound obvious, but do the people you work with know how and when to hydrate themselves? This is important for office-based staff, but absolutely vital for anyone working in a factory or warehouse, or out on the roads. If you don’t already have one, now is the time to put a working in heat policy for your workplace and to raise awareness with posters such as this one from WorkSafe Victoria.
Back Up Your Digital and Physical Information and Equipment
While power black outs during summer are reasonably rare, they do some without warning. Therefore, it’s important to ensure your digital information is backed up to an external source to keep it safe and that you consider back up generators if you work in an industry that relies on keeping power to equipment on an ongoing basis.
Of course, that’s where our team of fire safety experts can help! So, for more information on our fire equipment services, or to book a time for our fire protection team to visit your office, factory or warehouse to help you prep for summer, simply give us a call!
