Posted by Luke Fishback

As a QSR owner, you’ve probably seen your fair share of energy management systems. The folks at energy management companies love to pitch to QSR owners over and over again about how much money they can save by switching to a more sophisticated control system. One topic that’s always included in these pitches is HVAC control. Whether it’s a sophisticated fully automated control system, a “smart” thermostat with two way communication capability, or a variable speed air handler, they all promise significant overall energy savings.

At PlotWatt, we’ve examined these HVAC control systems with a critical eye, curious to determine what works best for your store’s energy expenditure and for your wallet. We’ve monitored and reviewed the data on company-managed systems that cost $10,000+ per store, and we’ve assessed $500 smart thermostats that promise to employ fancy logic to automatically optimize your energy usage. It turns out though, that you only need a simple system to lower your costs and keep your store’s temperature regulated.

PlotWatt’s research on these systems has shown that simple is best; a programmable thermostat ($100 at Home Depot or Lowes) and a clear lockbox save the same amount of money as much more expensive systems. Program it once, lock it, control access to the key, and you’ll get virtually the same result as those higher cost solutions. When you partner with PlotWatt, you can use PlotWatt’s monitoring feature to see how much energy your HVAC is consuming and make sure that the unit is running to manufacturers’ specifications. If your system malfunctions, PlotWatt will notify your team as quickly as any fully automated control system.

The idea is to install tools that give you more time, reduce your operating costs, and quickly return the investment. The data has shown simple and inexpensive is the best solution to reduce your HVAC energy consumption.