O'Hara's Public House

One thing that everyone seems to want, regardless of what we’re buying or who we’re buying it from, is a certain level of transparency in what we’re getting. With so many things going on in our lives from day to day, we need to know what kind of commitment it takes from us to get the most out of the service or product we’re purchasing—and we want to know upfront.

This is especially true when it comes to services that affect our business. Fortunately for Sean and Matt O’Hara, and O’Hara’s Public House in Lexington, SC, the level of transparency that went into upgrading their walk-in coolers and freezer could not have been better.

As a small business within the geography of their utility provider’s Small Business Energy Solutions program, O’Hara’s Public House qualified for sponsored solutions for their commercial refrigeration system. What this meant was they received a no-cost assessment of their walk-ins, earned eligible utility-funded incentives (which in their case was more than 75% of the solution’s out-of-pocket cost), and then had the upgrades installed by licensed, trained technicians.

For their part, NRM’s knowledgeable Energy Advisor walked the O’Haras through the assessment, explaining which specific upgrade opportunities they were looking for, and how those upgrades would improve the system’s operation. Then, a detailed proposal with kWh savings, dollar savings, payback period, and post-incentives cost broken down was presented. 

Once the project was approved, the agreed upon measures—in this case, it included smart refrigeration controls, energy efficient EC fan motors, anti-sweat door heater controls, and live system monitoring software—were integrated retrofit into their existing system with zero disruption to the O’Hara’s day-to-day business.

In sum, the measures will deliver over 70,000 kWh in savings over the next ten years. But more than the savings, the O’Haras’ love their new ability to keep a close eye on the operation of their system—and the safety and quality of their stored food products—whether they’re in the restaurant or not.