Prime Communications, who manage a national chain of AT&T stores, was facing significant challenges managing their complex HVAC systems across thousands of locations. Their fundamental issue – a lack of centralized multi-site HVAC control – resulted in sustained overhead cost bloat and expensive inefficiencies at all levels of operation.
To solve their ongoing problems, Prime needed an easy-to-use smart thermostat management system that could centralize and streamline their HVAC operations, reduce their store-level energy consumption nation-wide, and deliver a rapid return on investment.
By implementing an easy-onboard, high-impact smart thermostat management solution, the client quickly gained control over their multi-site HVAC systems, optimized their energy usage, and achieved substantial ongoing operational cost savings – $250,000 per month, to be exact.
Let’s review the case details together.
Table of Contents
- The Client: Prime Communications
- The Business Challenges: The Impact of No Centralized HVAC Control
- The Smart Solution: Mysa HQ Smart Thermostat Management System
- The Results: Effective Energy Management = Massive Energy Savings
- About Mysa Smart Thermostats
The Client: Prime Communications
Prime Communications is the largest, privately-held AT&T Authorized Retailer in North America. Headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, Prime Communications holds nearly 2,000 locations with over 7,000 employees nation-wide.
The Business Challenges
No Automatic Setbacks
To provide consistent, reliable comfort across all 2000+ locations, Prime Communications’ AT&T retail facility HVAC units were constantly running, whether or not a location was open. Heating or cooling empty stores for hours a day resulted in sky-high electricity bills that strained their operating expenses.
Employees Mismanaging HVAC
With no centralized energy management system in place, HVAC control was at the individual store level. Busy staff had to “remember to check” that everything was turned off or set correctly before closing – an extra responsibility that was too often forgotten. As well, with setpoints left to employee discretion, it was common for thermostats to be cranked up or down by staff as they tried to quickly cool or warm up the store, a tactic that is not only ineffective, but increases the chances of HVAC equipment failure.
Costly System Maintenance
As a result of leaving individual HVAC systems running constantly or employees mismanaging thermostat setpoints, unnecessary wear and tear on HVAC equipment was a major issue nation-wide, resulting in system failures, costly truck rolls, and hefty maintenance bills.
The Solution: Mysa HQ Smart Thermostat Management System
“We saved over 20% on our energy bills by switching to Mysa HQ! Our energy costs across 2,000+ locations dropped $250,000 per month. The platform is convenient and easy – we're able to set a schedule and forget it, no more worrying about stores running their HVAC overnight. Mysa HQ keeps us comfortable and our operational overhead under control.”
Othniel King, Director of Operations,Prime Communications
With 2000+ locations across North America, Prime Communications needed:
- HVAC control and visibility across their entire portfolio
- To reduce/prevent thermostat tampering
- The ability to prevent unnecessary HVAC use during closed hours
- To significantly reduce their energy usage and costs
- A cost-effective energy management solution with a fast ROI
The Mysa HQ Smart Thermostat System was implemented nation-wide in over 2,020 sites with 2,910 devices installed, enabling the client to define schedules at a national, regional, and site level to effectively manage HVAC usage. Prime management now easily monitors heating, cooling, and energy usage in dynamic visual graphs in the Mysa HQ platform to manage consumption more effectively.
Thermostat Lockouts
Mysa HQ’s lockout feature gives the client control over if, and when, employees can change store temperatures at the thermostat, with pre-set ranges and times, balancing consistent comfort with management’s confidence that store HVACs aren’t running unnecessarily.
Remote Thermostat Monitoring
With Mysa HQ, Prime logs in to their custom portal to view real-time, portfolio-wide thermostat status, including thermostat overrides by employees at the store-level. They can now identify issues with employee or customer comfort, pinpoint stores where system overrides are being applied most frequently, and easily identify which HVAC units may require maintenance. By having this precise level of oversight, Prime can address HVAC issues quickly and reduce the time it takes for their mechanical contractor to diagnose the problem.
Thermostat Grouping & Scheduling
Mysa HQ’s thermostat grouping feature enables Prime to group thermostats together by location or function, and apply different schedules to different spaces, like the sales floor and store room. If operating hours change, or a specific region is experiencing uncharacteristically hot or cold temperatures, Prime can adjust the grouped thermostats remotely with just a few clicks.
The Results: Effective Energy Management = Huge Cost Savings
As a result of implementing the Mysa HQ Smart Thermostat Management System, Prime Communications is enjoying:
- A whopping 20% – or $250,000 per month – savings on HVAC maintenance and energy costs
- Easy, centralized insights and control over HVAC equipment and store temperature across 2000+ locations
- Granular insights into energy consumption and costs nationwide
- Lightning-fast, 1-Year ROI
Ready to lower your operating costs with centralized HVAC control of your multi-site retail chain? Request a demo today.
About Mysa Smart Thermostats
Mysa delivers proven comfort, control, and energy savings – without compromise. Founded in 2016 by Canadian Engineers (and brothers) Josh and Zach Green, Mysa’s mission is to develop life-simplifying smart HVAC controls for commercial and residential buildings that make reducing energy consumption easy.