Building

Heat Wave and Extreme Heat

Prepare Your Buildings for Tomorrow's Climate Challenges

Building

Heat Wave and Extreme Heat

Prepare Your Buildings for Tomorrow's Climate Challenges

Building

Heat Wave and Extreme Heat

Prepare Your Buildings for Tomorrow's Climate Challenges

Heat waves are becoming more frequent, longer, and more intense. For owners, operators, and managers of commercial, industrial, or data center buildings, the challenge is no longer limited to occupant comfort: it is now a matter of maintaining operations, protecting critical equipment, and ensuring service continuity.

More broadly, buildings today must cope with the many consequences of climate change: heat waves, droughts, floods, extreme weather events, and growing pressure on resources. In this context, climate resilience aims to anticipate these risks in order to sustainably preserve building performance and business continuity.

As part of this initiative, Equans supports its clients through a comprehensive approach combining vulnerability assessments, operations and maintenance, optimization of existing facilities, climate engineering, and technical cooling and cooling solutions. From risk identification to solution implementation, our experts help organizations enhance summer comfort, protect their critical equipment, and prepare their buildings for the summers of the future.

Why Should We Take Action Now to Address Heat Waves?

A building that is not properly prepared for extreme heat can suffer significant consequences:

Reduced comfort for occupants during the summer;
Decreased productivity in workspaces;
Excessive strain on HVAC equipment;
Risk of breakdowns and operational downtime;
Increased energy and maintenance costs;
Decline in the value of real estate assets;
Threats to business continuity at sensitive, industrial, or digital sites.

Healthcare facilities, nursing homes, schools, offices, industrial sites, and data centers are now directly affected.

A comprehensive approach to improving summer comfort and ensuring business continuity

At Equans, we take a gradual and pragmatic approach tailored to the specific circumstances of each building.

Our goal: to find the best balance between summer comfort, energy efficiency, business continuity, and decarbonization.

Maintaining Equipment and Ensuring Safe Operations

The first response to a heat wave is often to optimize existing facilities.

Our teams provide services for:

Preventive and corrective maintenance of HVAC systems, particularly cooling systems;
Descaling of piping systems;
Optimization of operating setpoints;
Equipment criticality analysis;
Implementation of backup and redundancy solutions;
Deployment of temporary cooling units for sensitive sites.

Reducing overheating with solar protection

The most effective way to cool a building is often to prevent heat from entering it.

Equans offers:

Sunshades and sun protection systems;
Motorized blinds;
Solar-control glazing;
Solar films for existing windows;
Roof and facade insulation;
Reflective roofing;
Green roof solutions;
Smart control via building management systems (BMS).

Promoting comfort naturally

Before turning on the air conditioning, there are certain solutions that can significantly improve thermal comfort.

Air circulators;
Natural ventilation;
Automation of windows and doors;
Nighttime over-ventilation;
Smart management of heat gain. These solutions are particularly well-suited for schools, commercial buildings, gymnasiums, and seasonally occupied spaces.

Cool Smartly and Reduce Energy Consumption

Adiabatic Cooling

Adiabatic cooling harnesses the natural phenomenon of water evaporation to lower the air temperature without relying on conventional air conditioning. It can be used directly for building ventilation, via an adiabatic unit, to provide a cooling solution in facilities that lack such systems, such as educational facilities, nursing homes, or industrial sites.

The adiabatic dry cooler is another solution particularly well-suited for boosting cooling systems in industrial facilities, data centers, and critical infrastructure; it increases available capacity during heat waves and improves the performance of chillers during periods of extreme heat while reducing energy consumption.

Its advantages:

Reduced energy consumption;
No refrigerant;
Can be integrated into existing systems;
Low maintenance;
Solution suitable for offices, schools, nursing homes, gyms, and industrial buildings.

Use air conditioning when necessary

Certain activities require precise control of the indoor temperature.

Equans designs, installs, and maintains:

Split systems;
DRV/VRV solutions;
Reversible heat pumps;
Chillers;
Geothermal heating and cooling;
Industrial process cooling solutions.

Heat Wave Vulnerability Assessment: Be Proactive Rather Than Reactive

How will your building respond to several days of a 40°C heat wave?

A heat vulnerability assessment helps anticipate this situation through thermal simulation of the building and analysis of its technical systems.

This study makes it possible to:

Identify points of vulnerability;
Assess risks to occupants and operations;
Verify that installed capacity is adequate;
To identify priority investments;
Develop a roadmap tailored to the site’s specific challenges.

An approach that is equally suitable for commercial buildings, industrial sites, healthcare facilities, and data centers.

Why Choose Equans?

Recognized expertise in multi-disciplinary maintenance and operations;
In-depth knowledge of HVAC systems;
A daily presence at our clients’ sites;
Expertise combining maintenance, engineering, energy, and digital technology;
An integrated approach combining summer comfort, energy efficiency, business continuity, and adaptation to climate change.