Automation Upgrades Save HOM Furniture Store $49,000 in Just One Year

SIDEBAR:

AT A GLANCE

Location –
Plymouth, Minnesota

75F Solutions –
75F Outside Air Optimization Economizers, 75F Smart Nodes

EnergyPrint Solution –
Utility Dashboard

Square Footage –
180,000 square foot

Rooftop Units –
22

Average Rooftop Unit Size –
10 Ton

Previous System –
Standard Commercial Thermostat

HOM Furniture is one of the nation’s largest furniture retailers, serving customers in the upper Midwest with an average store size of 100,000-plus square feet. These retail shopping environments are typically one- or two-story buildings and operate seven days a week.

Since 2010, HOM has been tracking their utility and energy performance data for their portfolio of retail stores with EnergyPrint. They also leverage EnergyPrint’s Utility Dashboard, a cloud-based energy management software, to better understand their energy use and expenditures, prioritize improvements, and prove results. With energy as a top-three operating expense for HOM, totaling $228,000 annually, company leaders proactively searched for ways to invest in cost-effective solutions to increase efficiency across its portfolio of retail stores.

The 75F Solution

With several aging buildings, HOM reached out to 75F and saw the opportunity to optimize its existing 10-year-old RTU equipment with new outside air optimization (OAO) economizer controls at the Plymouth, Minnesota, showroom location. Additionally, smart sensor upgrades were added for each unit to allow for remote monitoring and control as well as advanced scheduling and setback capabilities.

Advanced OAO works to limit excessive outside air conditioning and increases the use of outside air during the spring and fall seasons when ideal conditions are present. 75F's OAO is equipped with cloud computing data storage and processing power and operates efficiently through its abundance of "free cooling."

FIGURE 1: 75F’s upgrades at HOM Furniture reduced overall energy costs by 21.1% in one year. Images courtesy of 75F

This site used a simple prescriptive rebate from Xcel Energy, providing $20 a ton for advanced economizer controls ($4,400), and $100 per RTU ($2,200) for the addition of CO₂ monitoring, bringing the total utility rebates to $6,600. With EnergyPrint's Utility Dashboard as a guide, HOM benchmarked this building's performance to monitor its monthly progress and validate savings results.

FIGURE 2: A live zone view from Facilisight, 75F’s suite of web and mobile apps. Each zone can be individually controlled and monitored.

The Result

The Utility Dashboard and the 75F HVAC controls upgrade saved the Plymouth site nearly $50,000 within the first year of installation. This equated to a 21.1% drop in energy costs and a 21.4% drop in energy consumption for the building, which was far ahead of projected pre-installation calculations. The collaboration between 75F and EnergyPrint provides HOM with the ability to implement affordable solutions to improve building efficiency and prove financial results. Additionally, EnergyPrint’s Utility Dashboard gives the HOM team a wide view of their portfolio so they can easily identify other properties where 75F solutions could be beneficial.

FIGURE 3: The view from EnergyPrint’s Utility Dashboard, showing the drop in energy consumption since 75F’s installation. The 75F system has saved HOM Furniture nearly $50,000 in utility bills within the first year of installation.

"EnergyPrint has shown me that 75F is performing above and beyond their conservative estimates on a regular basis," said the project's real estate manager. "The two paired together just makes complete sense."