Author Archives: Powerhouse Dynamics

Spotlight: Cold Beer in Convenience Stores

SiteSage detects refrigeration failure in real time

Over the next few months, we’ll be publishing what we call Spotlights: mini case studies showing how a customer used SiteSage to their best advantage, whether to save money, gain control over their equipment, reinforce desired staff behaviors, or achieve granular insight into their operations. We hope that some of these Spotlights offer a new perspective […]

Restaurant & Store Managers: Technology Reduces Stress

SiteSage mobile thermostat adjustment

Whether you manage one store or one thousand stores across multiple states, you have many priorities that compete for your time and attention. It’s a job that I do not envy, but the good news is that technology can make your life easier. Without a doubt, an internet-connected Asset and Energy Management System like SiteSage […]

How to Get a Utility Rebate for an Energy Management System

Energy Savings

You want to install a system that improves the operational efficiency of your facility, reduces your energy consumption and provides operational visibility but don’t think you can clear the payback hurdles set by your finance department? Here’s help! You can clear those hurdles with utility rebates, programs that help reduce your upfront investment. Utility rebate […]

Powerhouse Dynamics Selected for the Global 100 “Ones to Watch” List

2016 Global Cleantech100 One to Watch

Recently, we were deeply honored to learn that we had been included on the Global Cleantech 100 Ones to Watch list. This award is meaningful because according to sponsoring organization Cleantech Group (CTG), we were selected from 9,900 nominated companies from 77 countries. The list was winnowed down and reviewed by a panel of 86 […]

Powerhouse Dynamics volunteers at Greater Boston Food Bank

Powerhouse Dynamics volunteers at the Greater Boston Food Bank

Last Friday, most of the Boston-area Powerhouse Dynamics team did what’s become an annual volunteer activity, spending roughly half the day working at the Greater Boston Food Bank. One of the largest food banks in the U.S., in 2015 GBFB “distributed more than 54 million pounds of nutritious food, enough to provide healthy meals to […]

SiteSage Rebates now available from the NYSERDA RTEM

NYSERDA Rebates RTEM

Powerhouse Dynamics was recently approved as both a Systems and Services provider in NYSERDA’s RTEM (Real-time Energy Management) market. You may be asking what RTEM is and why you should care: if so, read on. RTEM is NYSERDA’s new rebate program that covers all of New York State, minus Long Island (which is covered separately […]

Save Maintenance Costs With These 3 EMS Exception Reports

Analytics and Reporting

In a world with constrained resources (chiefly time and money), it’s important to have the correct tools and processes in place to identify opportunities that give you the “most bang for your buck”. One of the biggest pieces of value a quality energy management system (EMS) delivers is culling through a sea of data from […]

Increase ROI: 5 steps to just-in-time equipment replacement

Increased costs of run-to-fail

It’s the operations manager’s nightmare: A vital piece of mission-critical HVAC or restaurant equipment fails in the middle of the busiest season of the year. Suddenly, you’re coordinating an emergency replacement. You need it yesterday, and you’re forced to take what you can get. Known as “run-to-fail”, for better or worse this is the dominant […]

Putting a dollar value on Preventive Maintenance

An ounce of prevention...

We all remember reading about Benjamin Franklin in grade school, and the kite in the storm with the key attached to the string, and voila…he proved the relationship between lighting and electricity. Ben Franklin was also famous for his many axioms, including “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” We all know […]

Schedule Start Up/Shut Down to Save Energy in Restaurants

On-off schedule stickers

If you read Powerhouse Dynamics’ advice for getting on the asset and energy management podium, you probably noticed that one key strategy mentioned was developing an “equipment start up/shut down schedule”. If you aspire to winning a medal, then it’s time to enforce that new policy and watch the energy savings and equipment cost reductions […]

What can energy data reveal about behavior at restaurants?

Frappe

By now, we all know that remotely accessed energy, temperature, and other data can reveal deep insight in to equipment performance. Today, I want to explore a few outside-the-box ways that equipment-level energy data, provided by an internet connected Energy Management System like SiteSage, was used to gain insight into human performance: specifically restaurant-level employees […]