The Challenge

Grace Community Church realized the increasing cost of energy was impacting their ability to fund core programs. Saving energy was key, but the dynamic schedules of worship facilities made manual approaches difficult and inconsistent.

A traditional building automation system was too costly, and manual energy management produced only short-term savings. Grace Church needed an affordable solution to automate savings without burdening staff.

The Solution

WIRELESSLY MANAGED THERMOSTATS

Autani’s EnergyCenter system of wirelessly networked thermostats was installed to manage heating and air conditioning across the campus. The easy-to-use interface schedules setpoints and automatically applies setbacks for unoccupied areas.

The system connects all six buildings as a single wireless network, enabling communication between thermostats even across a distance of more than 100 feet.

TASK TUNING

Heating and cooling settings adjust automatically based on event type, occupancy, and seasonal needs. Local thermostat buttons can be locked during scheduled periods and unlocked for adjustment during off-hours.

REMOTE ACCESS

Using Access Manager, the facilities team can manage and monitor the system remotely from any device with a web browser.

The Results

AUTOMATING GREEN

Grace Community Church recouped the cost of the system in less than a year thanks to automatic energy savings. Less time spent manually adjusting settings lets staff focus on their mission.

ADDING FANS, SEEING RESULTS

Wireless occupancy sensors and load controllers manage fans in key areas, turning them off when spaces are empty and allowing remote monitoring through EnergyCenter.

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT

The next phase will add dynamically scheduled and occupancy-based lighting control using LightCenter, projected to reduce lighting energy consumption by up to 50%.