Changing the Way MDUs Manage Energy Costs:
How One Smart[er] Thermostat is Revolutionizing HVAC Management and Control
Deep in the heart of downtown Austin, Texas, a stunning 29-story luxury high-rise provides sophisticated living experiences in stylish apartment homes. Towering over the market district, the Monarch is a high-end residential community where tenant satisfaction and comfort are set to an uncompromised standard. To maintain that standard, the Monarch team diligently manages the tower's amenities for their clients, including the chilled water system for HVAC, optimizing the delicate balance between lavish living and operational energy efficiency. Ensuring quality service is a priority, so the Monarch team uses well-respected vendors to handle critical parts of their operation. For tenant utility billing the team partnered with Minol USA, knowing they were one of the largest and best in the industry and could handle electric, gas, and water submetering and billing for their tenants. Ten years had passed since construction and the Monarch team continued meeting high standards. Life was good for the Monarch team and their tenants until their water sub-meters started to wear out and leak, leaving them with an expensive and potentially devastating problem.
Network Thermostat gives building owners and managers the power to measure and bill energy usage. From a single dashboard, they have full control of one to hundreds of properties, giving them peace of mind while ensuring the best care for their buildings, staff, and tenants.
Problem
Leaking water can potentially ruin an entire building, especially a high-rise. No wonder water damage is the 2nd largest cause of commercial insurance claims in the nation. Water sub-meters inevitably leak over time, forcing the industry and buildings like the Monarch to deal with the cost of maintaining and routinely replacing them. Sub-metering is the standard in the multi-dwelling unit (MDU) world, but is there a better way?
The Monarch team needed to replace their water sub-meters. They needed to continue billing and ensure their water leaks didn’t turn into a major situation. This meant continuing to measure water usage for both domestic and chilled water for HVAC while minimizing the replacement downtime for tenants. But with the high cost of replacing hundreds of water sub-meters and the guarantee of routinely replacing them, the Monarch team needed a better solution.
When the team inquired about better options, Minol contacted Network Thermostat (NetX), the company responsible for the X7, the world’s most powerful and best commercial thermostat.
Solution
Network Thermostat helps companies lower their energy usage and revolutionize their HVAC management so they save time, money, and energy. The NetX ecosystem gives facility teams full control and peace of mind while ensuring quality comfort for their tenants. When the Monarch team first talked with Jerry Drew, Founder and CEO of Network Thermostat, they quickly realized this company was different and he and his team had an expert understanding of HVAC and MDU markets. Jerry understood exactly what they were going through and provided them with a plan to replace their outdated mechanical thermostats with the elegant X7 WiFi Smart[er] touchscreen thermostat and NetX-Cloud management ecosystem.
The beautiful and easy-to-use X7 collects all operational data including temperature, humidity, set points, and equipment runtime. It then analyzes, sorts, and displays that information in easy-to-read charts and graphs using onboard data logging for access via the NetX Cloud. NetX data is so accurate and reliable that it is approved for billing by the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC). The PUC's focus on fair consumer practices requires tenants to be allowed to view and monitor individual usage. The X7 is the only thermostat that can provide such a report and data and the first known thermostat ever to be approved by the Texas PUC for billing.
The Monarch team replaced their domestic water sub-meters and removed the HVAC chilled water sub-meters. They employed the X7s to collect and report the data for each tenant's HVAC usage eliminating any future need for water sub-meters.
Network Thermostat also provided the Monarch team with a revolutionary way to monitor for water leaks from tenant domestic water sub-meters, water heaters, and HVAC condensate drip pans. The X7's universal remote sensor (NT-URS) pairs with water leak probes that will alert the Monarch staff via email and SMS text message the second a leak is detected. The X7 will also shut down the HVAC unit, helping to minimize water damage and mitigation.
The NetX ecosystem gave the Monarch team the ability to manage hundreds of commercial wifi thermostats, which came pre-programmed and ready to use out of the box, making installation a breeze. Using the robust NetX CloudManager tool suite allows tenants to have individual accounts linked to their X7 WiFi thermostats while the Monarch team has full access and control to every thermostat from a single dashboard, all accessible anywhere from any Smart device.
Results
The Monarch team can now visualize and maintain all of their units using a single unified dashboard on Network Thermostat's CloudConnect suite. NetX-Cloud allows them to see the status of every thermostat, point-n-click to enable and disable any account upon tenant turnover, and manage unleased units remotely while ensuring maximum savings.
With the evolving need for better amenities, the Monarch team was also able to provide each tenant with an elegant commercial wireless thermostat that brightens up their apartments and makes life easier. Now they have a thermostat controlled with an iPhone or any smart device giving them full access and visibility.
The X7 and NetX ecosystem gives the Monarch team a better way to capture and bill HVAC usage, including better reporting for their tenants and removing the cost of replacing water sub-meters while mitigating their ever-growing issue of sub-meter water leaks. The NetX deployment and energy savings are huge, but the peace of mind is priceless. Knowing they would all be alerted and the HVAC system would shut down in case of a leak has also been a huge relief for the Monarch team. In the end, the Monarch team achieved everything they wanted and more, because of Network Thermostat’s X7 and NetX ecosystem.
Conclusion
Life is good at the Monarch again. Their team continues to provide cutting–edge amenities for their tenants while ensuring their beautiful high-rise is given the care it deserves. Their story is a living testament to the time, money, energy, and risk mitigation that should and can be saved when a company partners with Network Thermostat and integrates the NetX ecosystem into its environment. No longer does energy management have to be stressful or expensive.
Network Thermostat gave the Monarch the power to measure tenant energy consumption, monitor and alert for water leaks, provide individual accounts for tenants, and lower energy usage, all from a single dashboard for hundreds of units. They have saved time, money, and energy while ensuring the best care for their building and tenants.
It turns out there is a better way, the revolutionary X7, leading the way to a new era of Smart[er] and more efficient HVAC control.