A couple of weeks ago, we shared a Q&A we had with Philip Edlund of Mountain View Lutheran Church on saving money with eSPACE. This week, we want to share a similar conversation on the benefits of eSPACE for your church facility.
Note: This conversation was with Ron Svoboda, Parish Director of Operations of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Spring, TX. St. Ignatius' relationship with Smart Church Solutions began when Ron joined a meeting on energy consumption. During the meeting, he met a leader in the industry who directed him to Smart Church Solutions.
Q1: How Large is Your Parish?
We have a fairly large parish. Overall, we have six buildings and house more than 4,000 families and 80 ministries. Therefore, we see a lot of activity on our campus throughout the week.
Q2: What Was Your Church Facility Like Before eSPACE?
I have three guys on my facilities team. Before utilizing eSPACE, they had to run around and program thermostats. They also had to change the thermostats if meetings were added. It was killing us on time consumption with our facility staff.
Quite frankly, my team got to the point where they set a weekly schedule and let it run. Therefore, we were running tons of AC and heating even when we might not have had meetings in the designated buildings. Our team just didn’t have the time to keep up with the changing schedules.
Q3: How Has eSPACE HVAC Integration Impacted Your Energy Consumption?
We love how the scheduling system ties into our HVAC control – that has been huge! Once we made the change, our energy consumption really started to drop. At one point, year-over-year, we were running about 40 percent less energy consumption versus the prior year. It has been absolutely amazing for us.
Q4: How Does Your Team Benefit From eSPACE’s Event Scheduler?
The event scheduling system is great. I have a link on our website where our ministry leaders schedule their own meetings. I–or someone on my team–approves the meetings and confirms that the leader booked the correct room. Then they are ready to go. It’s fabulous. And it is very user-friendly, which is great for some of our team members. They can use the system very nicely and request the space they need without any issues.
Q5: Do You Utilize eSPACE’s Work Order Management Function?
We have started utilizing the work order system, and I would love to start using it more. As background, we started using eSPACE right after Hurricane Harvey, so we were finishing up construction at the time.
Therefore, we were a little slower getting on board with the work orders. However, it is very handy. You can tie it to a particular room in a specific building. It is very user-friendly and great for my team to use. Overall, the eSPACE software helps with scheduling, work orders, and our HVAC – it’s really fabulous.
To learn more about how eSPACE can improve your church facility, schedule a demo today.
