The rainy season ended all at once. It is hot. Draft beer tastes good. Without air-conditioning, you can hardly get through the day — that is only human.
The summer after the Great East Japan Earthquake (March 2011), the government issued a power-restriction order. With a stern 15 percent cut as the target, the whole country saved electricity and rode out the crisis. Energy-saving investment has since advanced across society. At the Palaceside Building we invested in switching shared-area lights to LED, and we hear tenants have also been greening lights, PCs and other equipment.
Even so, as time passes, the memory of shortage seems to fade. We still need one more push to keep saving energy. So from July 1 the Palaceside Building entered its annual “power-saving period,” through September 30. Posters in the east and west elevator halls, with blue letters “Power saving in effect” and illustrations, call for cooperation.
As in other years, the main steps are as follows.
・Lights at the east and west first-floor entrances off from 13:00 to 16:00
・Men’s-toilet perimeter lights, from the entrance to the washbasins: usual 16:00 lighting pushed back to 18:00
・Some parking-garage exhaust fans stopped
At Mainichi Building Co.’s fifth-floor office, ceiling lights are turned off during the lunch break (noon–13:00) and other savings are practiced.
Through the period we also check hourly power demand from morning to evening, share the figures among the relevant sections, and fine-tune air-conditioning and other operations so consumption does not swell.
That said, we still pursue comfort in the building as far as we can. So through the summer, on the morning after Sunday and other closed days, air-conditioning for first-floor and first-basement shops and the concourse starts at 7:00 instead of 8:00 — one hour earlier. On closed days the systems stop and heat builds up, so we allow extra time to cool the building after a holiday.
This summer feels as if it will be hot. We ask tenants for their continued understanding and cooperation on energy saving.