Surf Liquors

Seaside Heights, New Jersey, a beautiful section of the state on the Atlantic Ocean with a picture-perfect boardwalk is the textbook example of a seasonal town. The warm sun and cool ocean bring upwards of 80,000 visitors to the town during the summer peak, compared to an average population of less than 2,000 in the winter.

So, for local businesses like Surf Liquors, it’s beneficial to get some relief during those tight winter months wherever they can get it. One area where they found an opportunity was their walk-in cooler in the form of performance optimizations offered through their utility provider’s small business energy program.

In 2015, NRM, on behalf of the energy program, worked with Surf Liquors in upgrading their refrigeration system, which improved its ability to cool, added intelligent controls to optimize when, how, and for how long the equipment needed to run to satisfy temperatures, and gave them some abilities to detect issues in operation before they became catastrophes.

In their particular case, the ability to reduce how much their system operated during the winter when it didn’t need to run at 100% capacity (lower outside temperatures and less inventory, for example), really impacted their bottom line in a noticeable way.

They also qualified for more efficient LEDs in their coolers, as well as more efficient motors for their evaporator fans, which both added to the operating reductions. Other added bonuses included an on-demand defrost feature, which allows them to start a defrost of their evaporator coils whenever they notice ice building up, a great feature in a beach town with high humidity and moisture.

In sum, all of these improvements have recouped them over $3,000 each year on their commercial electric bills compared to having nothing before, which equals roughly 20,000 kWh saved. So, in the 7 years they’ve had NRM’s solution they’ve kept over $20,000 in real dollars in their pocket instead of in electricity costs.