Why should you make the switch to eSPACE? We could give you a million reasons, but don’t take it from us. We chatted with Philip Edlund from Mountain View Lutheran Church about why he made the switch and how it has helped him.
His church has six thermostats that control two-stage gas furnaces with 3-phase heat pumps for a bit of background. One thermostat controls an electric furnace with a heat pump. Another controls a bank of four gas furnaces. Two control individual gas furnaces, while four control roof gas-fired HVAC/AC units.
Read the Q&A below to learn how eSPACE has helped him and his ministry:
Q1: Tell Us a Bit About Your Organization
Mountain View Lutheran Church is a medium-sized church – we are not a megachurch but not a small church either. We have about 300-350 worshippers on an average Sunday.
Q2: What About the Size of Your Physical Building?
Our campus is made up of five different buildings, all of them built at all different times. They each estimate about 10,000 square feet plus spread out across about 7 acres. It’s a semi-rural semi but also an urban setting. There are fields and horses and dirt farms along with mansions and highways.
The main sanctuary was built in the mid-60s and has seen improvements since then. We still have a historic-looking white chapel on-site and a few other buildings, including a community center.
Q3: When Did You Install Your Thermostats?
We put our thermostats in about three or four years ago. I attended many of the workshops put on by the Smart Church Solutions team, and we started with the eSPACE Work Order Management feature.
Eventually, we integrated our thermostats through the HVAC integration in the eSPACE Event Scheduler. We had many individual thermostats and a large diversity of types of equipment, so the Pelican system was recommended for us.
Q4: How Has the eSPACE HVAC Integration Helped You Save?
From February 2019 through the end of the year, we probably saved about $2-3k in heating and cooling costs since switching over to the Pelican thermostats.
Just to put it in perspective, it was like going from $20,000 in electric and gas to about $17-18,000. It was at least a 10-15% savings increase for us – which is money that can go back into ministry.
Q5: How Else Has the eSPACE HVAC Integration Helped You and Your church?
If we had an event going on, we would have to go change three thermostats for just one event. If we had to change the thermostat for one classroom, we would have to bump it up manually. It was extremely time-consuming. But now, when we update the church calendar, it automatically updates. We also can access it off-site or lock the thermostats so people can’t mess with them and leave them on while people are not on site. This has not only helped save energy but has increased operational efficiency.
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If your church is looking to be more efficient and effective with the facilities (including utility costs), our team can help.
