Grant's Shop 'N Save

Grant’s Shop ‘n Save is a premiere and prominent independent grocery store in Glen, NH, serving locals with fresh product and top-of-the-line customer service. Because they take pride in their status, any potential addition or change they make to their business must be proven and established if they’re going to put their name behind it.

When NRM’s Energy Advisor visited Grant’s and introduced our solution, owner Paul McGonagle needed to vet the measures like any other’s, even though the solution sounded good. So he spoke with his representative at New Hampshire Electric Co-op, who assured Paul NRM’s products and measures were legitimate.

In fact, NRM’s solution is offered through NHEC’s approved energy efficiency programs for small business, which put Paul’s mind at ease.

NRM’s Energy Advisor conducted a quick but thorough assessment of the walk-in coolers, walk-in freezers, and product coolers in the grocery store and found a number of opportunities where the refrigeration’s operation could be improved. This included smart controls that optimized cooling, controls to reduce excessive runtimes for anti-sweat door heaters, upgrading the motors in the evaporator fansets, upgrading their defrost capabilities to electric defrost with controls, and controls that set their novelty coolers to run only during business hours.

Combined, these measures were projected to reduce the electrical consumption of their refrigeration system by about 35,000 kWh each year (compared to having no controls). With their electric rates, this amounted to over $5,000 in actual cash savings from their commercial electric bill.

But they also appreciate the features that help better manage their system on a day-to-day basis.

For instance, the main controller will flash to alert someone when it detects a potential issue in the system’s operation. The new defrost controls allow them to initiate a defrost with the push of a button when they notice ice accumulating on their evaporator coil, instead of waiting for an emergency maintenance call. And there’s a button to turn off the system safely for 20 minutes while people are working in the walk-in.