— By Tony Albers —
How Café Zupas remotely manages energy usage in 82 stores.
With 82 stores across eight states, Café Zupas restaurant chain delivers “house-made happiness” with its healthy menu designed to “nourish the good life,” which is its tagline.
Headquartered in Sandy, Utah, Café Zupas sought to control energy usage at all 82 of its nationwide stores. By standardizing the installation of commercial thermostats with remote management, the company achieved reduced energy costs while maintaining indoor comfort for its customers and staff.
Challenge:
Remotely Manage Energy Usage in 80 Stores Across Eight States
With its previously installed thermostats, managing energy usage at the Café Zupas stores was a challenge. Because the stores are located in some of the hottest as well as coldest states in the nation, monitoring indoor temperatures and HVAC rooftop units was critical.
Objective:
Control and Reduce Energy Usage and Costs
Tyler Harris, Café Zupas’ owner’s representative who oversees store construction, needed thermostats that provided visibility into the store temperatures as well as remote management of the thermostats at all of the stores.
The objectives were:
• Manage energy usage and reduce costs
• Ensure comfort for customers and staff
• Gain visibility into the health of the rooftop units
Solution:
Commercial Thermostats with Remote Management App
Harris chose commercial thermostats that are managed with a remote app, providing real-time visibility into each store’s energy usage and enabling him to remotely manage the settings of all of the thermostats at once or in regional groups — all from his desktop computer or mobile phone. In addition, Harris can remotely set thermostats to idle when he needs to send a technician to work on a rooftop unit, reducing energy waste and increasing efficiency.
“The ability to view and manage thermostats at all 82 location at once gives me much better control of our energy consumption, which has helped reduce our energy costs — all while keeping our guests and team members comfortable,” Harris says.
Easy to Install and Use
Harris personally installed the thermostats in the kitchens of the stores. He also installed remote temperature sensors in the stores’ dining rooms, which wirelessly monitor the dining areas and automatically adjust the thermostats to help ensure optimal guest comfort.
Instant Remote Management
Using the mobile app from his desktop computer or mobile phone enables Harris to confidently see the exact store temperatures as well as which rooftop units are running, including the supply air temperatures from those units. In addition, if any equipment exhibits unusual activity, Harris can be instantly notified, allowing him to take a quick assessment of the situation.
Secure, Setpoint Limiting
Although all of the store thermostats are locked to prevent tampering, setpoint limiting allows local staff to adjust the temperatures up or down a few degrees to ensure indoor comfort.
Results:
Remotely Manage and Control Energy Costs at All Locations
Harris is delighted with the easy-to-use commercial thermostats that are remotely managed with the mobile app.
Benefits include:
• Reduced energy costs by managing rooftop unit runtimes
• Indoor comfort for store guests and staff
•Remote visibility of which rooftop units are running
• Automatic Daylight Savings Time adjustments
• Easy thermostat programming through a comprehensive, remote dashboard
• Ability to schedule runtimes for 365 days for all 82 locations
•Implementation of global and regional programming and scheduling
“With the mobile app, it’s quick and easy for me to see what the units are doing. And with the unique mechanical layout of our stores, now I can also see and resolve any control issues, such as if our dining room units are working against each other,” Harris adds.
“Having remote visibility and management of our store thermostats and rooftop units at all of our locations allows me to always know how our HVAC is functioning and take immediate action when needed,” he concludes.
For more information on Café Zupas, visit https://cafezupas.com/.
— Tony Albers is the west regional sales manager at Venstar LLC, a wholly owned business unit of Daikin Comfort Technologies North America, Inc. (Daikin), a subsidiary of Daikin Industries Ltd. (DIL), the largest manufacturer of HVAC systems worldwide.