EnTouch energy management system cuts costs at Community Center

June 25, 2014 – The hot Texas summer is fast approaching and for the West Houston Community Center that means higher energy costs for air conditioning and an increased strain on its budget.  
 
The West Houston Community Center (WHCC) is a nonprofit organization aimed at providing quality facilities that support the community. The center hosts Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Palmer Drug Abuse Programs (PDAP) for young and older youth, parent/child and multi-family programming, domestic abuse group counseling and Cocaine Anonymous.
 
To provide a comfortable environment for all of these programs, the center has historically seen a significant spike in the electricity bills during the summer months.  But this summer will be vastly different thanks to lower energy rates from Houston-based Entelrgy and an easy to use, energy management solution donated by EnTouch Controls.
 
Because its programs are hosted at various times and in multiple rooms throughout the WHCC facility, HVAC energy costs have become a significant expense for the organization.  One such program is the Family Point Resources, which focuses on programs that enrich the lives of low-income neighborhood children and their families. During the summer they conduct a variety of summer camps at WHCC including dance, art, drama, reading and sports. The camps greatly increase building traffic and are at all times of the day.
 
Before implementing EnTouch’s web-based energy management solution, WHCC guests were changing temperature settings themselves, or if they did not have access in a given room, they’d call the facility manager to come out to change the settings. The major issue was that when temperature changes were made in the evening, they’d be forgotten, leaving the air conditioning to run throughout the night when the facility was closed.
 
“Energy is our number one non-personnel expense, but there are simply too many programs and too many different groups within our facility for me to ensure temperatures are properly regulated,” Jorge Quinones, executive director, West Houston Community Center. “EnTouch’s solution completely simplified this process and we expect to see significant energy savings, which will free up our budget to focus on what’s most important to us – the community.”
 
Entelrgy adopted WHCC into its Community In Action Program, in which the company provides lower-priced energy costs and makes donations to local community organizations and non-profits.  In the case of WHCC, Entelrgy professionally renegotiated their energy contract and reduced their annual energy costs by just over $3,000. And on May 8th 2014Entelrgy made an additional charitable contribution of $3,868 to WHCC.
 
Add to that the donation of the EnTouch Pro Thermostats and WHCC will be able to reduce its energy costs even more by reducing its energy usage.  With the EnTouch Pro thermostats in place, guests can text the facility manager for changes and he can manage temperature changes remotely from anywhere with his mobile phone. Additionally, security functionality of the EnTouch Pro allows the facility manager to select a desired temperature and ensure that onsite changes do not exceed +/- 3 degrees of the approved setting. If changes are made, the thermostat will automatically revert back to vacant set points each night.
 
 “The West Houston Community Center is a valued resource providing essential wellness services to its community and it is a shame that so much of its funding was consumed by unnecessary energy costs,” said James Walton, VP of Business Development of EnTouch Controls. “We’re happy to provide the center with the EnTouch Pro thermostats and look forward to continuing our work with them to ensure maximum energy savings.”
 
“The goal of our Community In Action program in 2014 is to give $100,000 back to local organizations like the WHCC,” said F. Michael Lewis, Vice President of Operations for Entelrgy. “This is EnTouch’s first time teaming up with our Community In Action program, but the combination of our negotiated low rates and energy management is a good one for making the maximum impact on these organizations.”
 
About EnTouch Controls
Based in Richardson, Texas, EnTouch Controls is an industry-leading provider of data-driven energy management solutions (EMS). EnTouch Controls’ easy-to-use, web-based solution is designed to leverage real-time analytics to reduce energy consumption and maximize energy savings, to provide visibility across key assets while improving operational efficiency and enhancing overall customer comfort. EnTouch 360™ managed services takes traditional EMS to a higher level by providing dedicated support in managing energy usage and evaluating system issues. EnTouch Controls provides installation, professional services, technical support, energy usage monitoring, overall system performance and manages maintenance issues.

About Entelrgy
Based in the “Energy Capitol of the World”, Houston, Texas, Entelrgy LLC operates as an energy consultant and broker for commercial and industrial customers.  We handle national energy procurement and management for a variety of clients. While offering consulting not only on price and cost reduction, but also utility bill management, HVAC controls, utility construction, engineering services, demand response and lighting retrofits.

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