Signs that the problem is worth a structured look
One warm afternoon is not a pattern. A repeated complaint from the same part of the floor usually is. The signs below suggest the cooling no longer matches how the office is used.
- Staff report the same hot or cold zones week after week
- Headcount has grown or teams have moved since the cooling was set up
- Partitions, meeting rooms or desks were added without reviewing cooling zones
- Cooling units seem to run for long hours without the floor feeling comfortable
- Maintenance visits keep returning to the same units or areas
A symptom is not a diagnosis
A hot corner tells you where people feel uncomfortable. It does not tell you why. The cause could be a layout that blocks air, a zone serving more people than planned, a maintenance issue or something else. Guessing the cause early often leads to the wrong spend. The purpose of the check is to describe the symptoms clearly and gather evidence before anyone recommends a fix.
Please do not open, adjust or test electrical, refrigerant or other building systems yourselves to investigate. That work belongs to qualified specialists under an agreed scope.
Why an office drifts out of balance
Cooling is usually set up for the layout and headcount at the time the office was fitted out. Offices rarely stay that way. A team grows, a meeting room is added, a storage wall goes up or a department moves to a different corner. Each change can be sensible on its own. Together they can leave some zones serving far more people than they were planned for, while others serve rooms that sit empty for most of the day.
Running patterns also change. Longer working hours, more time on generator supply or changes to maintenance contracts all affect how the floor feels. None of this means the equipment has failed. It means the evidence needs to be gathered before anyone decides what to change.
Records to prepare
The check is more useful when the records already exist. Share what you have. Missing records are noted rather than invented.
- Recent electricity bills or utility statements
- Generator fuel and run-hour records, where kept
- Cooling run-hours or operating schedules
- Outage logs for grid supply or cooling equipment
- Maintenance and service history for the cooling equipment
- Current floor plan and any recent layout changes
- A simple log of where and when staff report discomfort
Who should attend
A short planned walkthrough works best with the people who know the floor and its records. Agree a date when the office is in normal use, so the walkthrough reflects a typical working day.
- The facilities manager or the person responsible for the building services contract
- An operations lead who knows how teams use the space
- The maintenance contact who services the cooling equipment, where available
- A landlord or managing agent contact if base building cooling is involved
What happens during the check
We walk the occupied floor with your team, review the records you have shared and take agreed non-intrusive measurements. The measurement scope is set out in writing before the visit. We compare cooling zones with current occupancy and layout and set a running cost baseline from the records.
A measured baseline is a starting point. It is not a promise of lower bills. Any saving depends on what the evidence shows and on the scope that is later agreed, so we do not quote fixed savings in advance.
What you receive
The check ends with prioritised findings and a next step scope. If the findings point to design or retrofit work, that work is quoted separately. Outtabox coordinates it, and the engineering and cooling work is carried out by qualified appointed MEP and commissioning specialists. Where identical assessment work is already included in an existing Outtabox design or strategy contract, it is not charged again.
The service page sets out the current fee, payment terms and exclusions.
Server rooms and critical IT spaces
Critical IT rooms and data centre cooling are delivered by Africore under its own scope. Outtabox leads the occupied workplace. Where a project needs both, each part has a clearly allocated specialist.
Where we work
Outtabox is based in Abuja, where our office is. We deliver projects in Lagos, Port Harcourt and across Nigeria. If your office has a cooling complaint you cannot explain, send us a short description and we will tell you whether a Performance Check is the right first step.
If the complaints on your floor match the signs above, request a Performance Check and we will tell you whether it is the right first step for your office.