Just as the autumn air turns chilly and colder temperatures become the norm, the ramp-up of the holiday shopping season brings ever-larger crowds of people into shopping centers and outlet malls. For facilities managers, ensuring consistent comfort across high-traffic areas is a top priority. In some cases, it can also be a major challenge.
While central HVAC systems manage most interior environments, areas such as entrances, walkways, and corridors often fall short of ideal comfort levels. These transitional spaces, where drafty air frequently seeps in, require special attention to maintain both warmth and customer satisfaction.
Heating High-Traffic Areas Is Mission-Critical
For facilities managers, ensuring that every square foot of a property feels inviting is more than a matter of comfort. It can also have a direct impact on foot traffic trends, tenant satisfaction, and revenue generation. Customers who find a retail space inhospitably cold may shorten their visits or skip certain parts of the facility altogether. They are also far less likely to become regular or repeat customers.
Entrances can be particularly problematic. Every time automatic doors open, a rush of cold air pours in, creating uncomfortable temperature swings that tax the HVAC system. Corridors and walkways, often designed with high ceilings, present additional difficulties. Warm air naturally rises, making these spaces harder to heat with consistency.
Another consideration is safety. Colder walkways can lead to condensation and slippery surfaces, increasing the risk of slip-and-fall accidents. For malls and outlets that see thousands of visitors daily, keeping these areas warm is actually a matter of risk management.
Addressing Seasonal Temperature Challenges
To mitigate some of these problems, facilities managers may need to bolster their centralized heating system with some supplemental solutions.
For high-traffic transitional spaces that see significant seasonal shifts, unit heaters can provide a practical and cost-effective option.
Unit heaters can be advantageous for many reasons, not least because they offer a targeted heating solution. They’re designed to provide direct, powerful bursts of warm air exactly where they’re needed most. Installed strategically at entrances or long corridors, they can quickly raise temperatures in areas where central systems are sluggish.
Another major benefit is flexibility. Unit heaters fit seamlessly into a variety of layouts, whether mounted from the wall or suspended from the ceiling. They can be stacked in a panel to compound their heat output. This flexibility allows facilities managers to heat specific zones or seasonal problem areas without overhauling the existing HVAC infrastructure.
As for efficiency, unit heaters can offer robust performance, with many models incorporating features like staged heating and compatibility with building management systems. By generating warmth only where it’s needed most, unit heaters reduce the strain on centralized systems and help lower energy costs overall.
For facility managers surveying their heating options, it’s important to note that unit heaters come in both electrical and gas-powered options; both can work effectively, though gas power comes with heftier requirements for ventilation. Infrared heaters are also an option, though they work a bit differently than standard unit heaters. Rather than heat up the ambient air, infrared heaters heat up a targeted object. As such, they are best used when heating areas where customers may be standing still for longer periods of time, such as a curbside pickup area.
Maximizing Customer Comfort as Cold Weather Begins
Choosing and installing supplemental heating solutions is a good start, but there are still other steps facilities managers can take to maintain comfortable temperatures. Best practices include:
- Manage airflow throughout the building. With warm air rising to the ceiling, temperature stratification can be a major issue in any commercial or retail space. Ceiling fans or destratification fans can push rising warm air back down into occupied zones, improving comfort in tall corridors and atriums while reducing wasted energy.
- Weatherproof transitional areas. It’s also important for facility teams to inspect seals, doors, and windows, particularly near walkways or corridors. Even small gaps can lead to significant heat loss and higher energy bills. Basic maintenance keeps heating systems from working harder than they need to.
- Proactively talk with tenants. In malls and outlets, individual stores often control their own climates. Coordinating with tenants on energy-efficient practices, such as keeping doors closed during the coldest days, helps reduce drafts and improve comfort across common spaces.
As the hustling, bustling holiday season approaches, malls and retail centers have to be ready for increased traffic. At the same time, preparing for plunging temperatures is a must. Facilities teams have many tools at their disposal to ensure their patrons feel comfortable, safe, and welcome throughout cooler seasons.
Jamie Tuinstra is a product manager at Modine Manufacturing, a global thermal management solutions provider headquartered in Racine, Wis.