NRM Success Story
Harvard Dining Services
Cambridge, MA
Harvard Dining Services not only greatly improved the efficiency of their refrigeration system, but they also gained new capabilities to better manage its operation. NRM provided a full-service solution they now can't live without.
What Harvard Needed
In 2008, in conjunction with Harvard University’s wider Campus Green initiative, Harvard Dining Services began their search for energy efficiency solutions for their foodservice facilities. On the whole, the Dining Services encompasses over 35 temperature-controlled environments across 11 locations throughout the campus. While they started with obvious upgrades like LED lighting, and heating & air conditioning, they were unaware that their refrigeration could be improved as well until they discovered NRM.
They also didn’t know that the refrigeration upgrades fell under the energy efficiency incentives programs offered by Eversource, their local utility provider. However, they were interested in getting help with their project.
If possible, they were also looking for a solution that could help them better manage each of those cold environments. Initially, the market offered basic temperature monitoring tools, devoid of features beyond an ability to see what the space temperature was at that time. Bob Leandro, the Director of Facilities for the Dining Services, wanted more—he wanted the ability to actively manage and monitor his equipment, because they couldn’t afford to lose any more equipment.
WHAT NRM PROVIDED
On the energy efficiency side, NRM upgraded their refrigeration equipment with high-efficiency retrofits. These upgrades included EC motors, evaporator fan controls, a timed system shutdown button, anti-sweat door heater controls, and on-demand defrost. Overall, these improvements recoup about 216,000 kWh (or roughly $35,000) annually from their utility costs.
And due to the incentives and the impressive savings, their payback period was quicker than expected.
Plus, there was added peace of mind from the fact it was NRM in-house electricians who performed all of the retrofits with no disruption to the Dining Services’ normal schedules.
As for Mr. Leandro’s desire to improve the oversight of all of his cold environments, Remote Site Manager fit the exact bill. For over five years, Mr. Leandro has been using RSM to remotely monitor his refrigeration equipment and not just his space temperatures.
RSM provides him instant email or mobile notification if a mechanical issue is detected, allows him to alter settings or initiate defrosts on-the-fly, automatically tracks and records all of the temperature data, and has visual real-time operating trends to quickly and exactly pinpoint an issue.
Industry
Higher Ed. Dining Services
Cold Rooms
35 areas including:
- Walk-in Coolers
- Walk-in Freezers
- Novelty Coolers
- Display Cases
Implemented Measures
- CoolTrol® refrigeration controls
- Remote Site Manager
- EC Motor Upgrades
- Anti-Sweat Door Heater controls
Annual Energy Savings
216,000 kWh
Annual Dollar Savings
$35,000
"In our Annenberg dining hall freezer, our compressors were on the verge of burning out, and we would never have picked up on it if not for the monitoring software. Not only did the alert save the compressor, which is a multi-thousand-dollar repair in itself, but potentially a freezer’s worth of product that might have been lost otherwise. The online interface is also very slick -- I love it."
— Bob, Director of Facilities
Avoid food safety crises with a wealth of operational data and proactive insights
Whether you have 1 cold space in a single school kitchen, or 100 cold spaces spread across an entire district, our live summary page gives you an immediate overview of all your cooling activity.
Quickly consult current and 7-day runtimes, cooling status, temperature settings, and address any alarms that have been triggered.
Consider the amount of time and effort you’d save by having critical operational info all conveniently in one place.
Arm yourself with powerful and unique visual diagnostics graphs to pinpoint exactly when and where an operating issue arises. Troubleshooting becomes more efficient and effective, helping to ensure the issue is resolved on the first technician visit.
The graphs show important but often overlooked components such as amperages, compressor cycles, the solenoid valve, and things like whether a door is open or not.
The monitoring platform offers transparent runtime and temperature data that provide the measurement and verification proof for accurate recordkeeping.
These graphs also allow you to actually see how much less energy your refrigeration system is using. While also tracking that safe temperatures are always met.
Store up to 10 years of operational logs that take the human-error component out of tracking temperatures.
Going beyond a high temperature alert — which occurs only after an issue has already disrupted operations — NRM’s platform provides a suite of early detection notifications to help you be more proactive with troubleshooting.
For example, a compressor that’s short cycling will still likely be able to cool the space, but it’s dangerous, unnoticed overuse could lead to a critical system failure, jeopardizing the entire cooler’s worth of food.