Portuguese American Civic League

One of the most rewarding aspects of what we do is when we get to help businesses that have become staples in their community; either geographically or culturally. In Lowell, one such place is the Portuguese American Civic League, who NRM was able to help improve the operation of their 2 walk-in coolers and 1 walk-in freezer earlier in 2023.

The process from idea to install could not have gone smoother, according to them, and NRM kept them up to speed at every step. It started with a no-cost assessment with our friendly, knowledgeable Energy Advisor who explained to manager, Manny, and the staff, where their refrigeration system was operating inefficiently. Poor operation can lead to unnecessary energy consumption, which wastes real dollars in your electric bill.

The assessment found multiple areas for improvement: how the system initiates its cooling cycles, evaporator fan runtimes, outdated evaporator fan motors, door heater controls for their cooler doors, and updating their defrost cycles.

All told, NRM projected that the Civic League would see a reduction of around 11,000 kWh annually by implementing said measures compared to doing nothing and leaving things as-is. Broken down per month based on their electric rate, the Civic League was projected to see around $155 in savings on their monthly bill.

After the retrofit solution was installed, Manny said they saw savings within the very first month.

NRM’s solution also comes with many features that improve employees’ day-to-day interactions with the refrigeration system. One such feature that Manny and his team said quickly became their favorite: the timed system shutdown button. This safely turns the cooling off for 20 minutes while people are working in the walk-in so no one improperly turns off the fans to keep cold air from blowing on them!