As traditional retailers reshape their business models to find new pathways for growth, earnings per share (EPS) continue to serve as an indicator of success. Regardless of the formula used to calculate share value, energy expenses – specifically, wasted energy – negatively impacts the bottom line.
Today’s biggest retailers realize heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) operations account for 35% of their buildings’ overall energy consumption and spend. For large retail chains with multiple stores, inefficient HVAC operation can equate to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lost profit. The problem is they haven’t found a proven solution to optimize these loads – at least not one that meets their financial payback requirements while being easy to deploy across a portfolio of facilities.
Why all the waste in the era of modern building automation?
Don’t get us wrong, building automation systems (BAS) are great. They effectively control a number of important systems including lighting, security, fire, and other interconnected components. And for HVAC, they deliver on their promise of energy savings and provide a host of other benefits including zone controls, improved air quality, and reduced maintenance costs.
But let’s examine whether a BAS can truly maximize energy efficiency. These systems face the design tradeoff of having a high initial cost to achieve enhanced functionality, especially given the computer power needed to deliver machine learning by storing and analyzing volumes of historical data. With the advent of cloud-based software solutions, customers no longer need to make this tradeoff.
Encycle’s unique and innovative cloud-based software technology, Swarm Logic®, uses advanced analytics to help retailers achieve typical savings of 10%-20% on HVAC-related energy consumption and spend. What’s more, these savings are in addition to results already achieved through investments in building controls or third-party monitoring providers.
Substantiated savings demonstrated for a large retail clothing company
When Encycle recently told a national department store chain that it could save thousands of dollars per store in annual energy savings by deploying Swarm Logic across its portfolio of 1,000+ facilities, they asked that the claim be substantiated. After all, the savings sounded too good to be true. The Encycle team got to work, and began by gathering data including climate zones, facility sizes, energy costs, and design criteria across its stores.
Using results achieved with similar customers combined with energy modeling, a savings analysis by region revealed that the retail chain could realistically save $4,000 per store in annual energy savings. If Encycle’s Swarm Logic technology were deployed across the retailer’s 1,000+ stores, it could result in a $0.02 increase in the retail chain’s earnings per share. This has the same bottom-line impact as an increase of $43 million in merchandise sales!
The national department store retailer is actively engaged with Encycle to start lowering energy loads simply by connecting their current building controls to Swarm Logic IoT-enabled technology. The value proposition is simple. The retail giant will make a low program fee investment without any need for capital expenses, realizing an almost immediate financial payback and achieving unprecedented levels of HVAC energy savings. The low-risk, easy-to-deploy Swarm Logic solution synchronizes HVAC rooftop units, allowing them to respond more efficiently to dynamically changing cooling requirements. Multiple cooling loads are automatically balanced without compromising indoor comfort.
Be sure to stay tuned for updates on actual savings when we begin sharing those results on our news and social channels!
Determining your company’s savings expectations
As companies evaluate strategies to meet sustainability targets, Encycle is eager to show them exactly how they can realize near instant energy savings. There is no time-consuming, disruptive, or expensive energy audit required to determine the positive impact on your bottom line. To narrow down projected savings, Encycle’s energy specialists may ask for site details such as square footage, the number of RTUs, cooling capacity, annual energy consumption, demand and spend.
Don’t have a building automation system? That’s not a problem. Similar energy-saving results and control benefits can be achieved with Swarm Logic using connected thermostats that Encycle can recommend through partnerships with the industry’s most reliable providers.
Are you ready to help your company unlock new value opportunities that can positively and dramatically impact your bottom line? Tell Encycle a little about your retail scene and we’ll recommend an energy-saving strategy that gives you an edge up on the competition.
Contributing author: Chris Hensley, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Encycle Corporation
