3 Tips for Protecting Your Restaurants This Winter

Winter will be here before we know it, which means it’s time to start preparing your restaurants for colder weather. Colder weather means more time spent indoors, which in turn means more exposure to illnesses, discomfort, and unwanted breakdowns. We interviewed our team of field engineers for some of the best steps restaurant facility managers can take now to protect their indoor air quality and HVAC equipment.  

Prepare for Winter in Advance 

One of the best pieces of advice we provide to our restaurant clients is to start preparing for winter before it hits. This includes having your heating on your HVAC equipment serviced. It’s best to do this in the fall before it gets too cold. Have your service company put it in heat mode, make sure it’s operating properly, and inspect heat exchangers to make sure there’s no damage or holes.  

Another best practice is to make sure thermostats are still programmed for a schedule. Check the heating schedule to ensure setpoints are appropriate for comfort.  

Improve Ventilation 

Proper ventilation plays a major role in reducing airborne contaminants and preventing illnesses from spreading. Bringing in fresh air during the wintertime seems counterintuitive since many want to seal restaurants up from the cold. However, this is important because maintaining high levels of ventilation helps protect against the cold and flu, which spreads when people spend more time indoors. Bringing in fresh air also helps restaurants with efficiency and CO2 counts.   

Invest in Air Purification Systems & Filters 

We saw firsthand during the Covid-19 pandemic how active air purification systems, like RGF’s PHI® technology, can improve indoor air quality and contribute to a healthier indoor environment. Active air purification systems like these are easy to install, require minimal maintenance, and work immediately and continuously, decreasing the chances of illnesses spreading. 

If you want to learn more about how active air purification systems can keep your restaurants healthy this winter, read our case study about installing them in a national restaurant chain.  

Another effective way of keeping your indoor air safe is making sure your filters are clean and have been changed out. We recommend having your service company change filters out on a quarterly basis. Not doing so can severely affect your ventilation.  

Take a minute to look at these items – they do matter, especially during the colder months. If you’re looking for a partner to help you optimize your indoor air quality and building efficiency this winter, reach out to the NTi team. We will fortify your facility with our Total IAQ Approach.