This Wednesday comes into force the first set of measures with which the Government hopes to save between around 5% of energy, such as temperature control in the air conditioning of buildings or the turning off of lights in shop windows and public buildings when they are unoccupied. Others, such as informative posters or the articulation of automatic door locks, have a margin until September.
It will be in that month when the Government announces new measures to complement the savings plan and achieve the objective committed to with Brussels of saving 7%.
Among those that must be operational as of Wednesday and that will be in force until November 1, 2023 are:
The interior of buildings and administrative establishments and in which some type of service is provided to the public must maintain a minimum temperature of 27 degrees in the air conditioning thermostat and a maximum of 19 degrees in the case of heating in winter.
Buildings and premises intended for the following uses are required to comply with these limits:
- Administrative: Includes office floors or areas, general lobbies and areas for public use.
- Commercial: shops, supermarkets, department stores, shopping centers and the like.
Public Attendance:
The royal decree law approved on Monday, August 1, specifies that the following are exempt from air conditioning restrictions:
Yes. The Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, explained that this royal decree is based on existing labor legislation and that the exceptions will be the same as those included in this labor legislation.
“A person sitting in a bank office will not work at the same temperature as someone who is cooking in a restaurant. It cannot be the same temperature for the employees of a dry cleaner, or for the cleaning sector, as for a deputy sitting on his seat in Congress, ”he assures.
For this reason, based on RD 486/1997 of April 14, which establishes the minimum health and safety provisions at work, when applying temperature limits in the workplace, a distinction is made between:
Shop windows and public buildings that are unoccupied must turn off all their lighting from 10:00 p.m. until the next day, from this Wednesday until September 30, 2022.
Buildings and businesses have until September 2 to inform, through informative posters or the use of screens, of the saving measures that have been applied. They must include, in an easily visible way, the limit values of air temperatures, temperature and humidity with thermometers visible to the users of the building, the opening of doors and the revision and maintenance regimes. These measures must remain in force until November 30, 2023.
The obligation to keep the doors of air-conditioned buildings closed has been another of the issues that has generated the most conflict, especially among businesses, usually more exposed to the streets.
The royal decree of August 1 contemplates that establishments obliged to maintain limits on their air conditioning must also ensure that before September 30, 2022 their buildings and premises have an efficient door closing system that prevents energy waste.
The Government recalls that this obligation was already in force for all buildings serving the public that did not use renewable energy for air conditioning.
