The process started with Budderfly “measuring everything. They put in a lot of sensors to figure out where we were using energy, and not surprisingly, its HVAC. The cooler and the freezer are the two biggest things,” Hart explained.
Budderfly installed smart sensors that empower Hart to control the HVAC remotely. “We can set it so that we’re not unnecessarily heating or cooling the restaurants [especially] on days when we’re not open. We can adjust it, and we can make sure that there’s not some rogue employee who’s making it too cold in the summertime or too warm in the winter.”
The temperature can be changed at the store level if needed. Budderfly doesn’t “put any restrictions on what we can do. So if I want to cool the place down to 62 degrees I can do that,” he added.
For Hart, he’s racked up about 3-5% per month in energy savings. “I spend on average probably over $5,000 per month per store, about $300,000 a year. Each percent I save is $3,000 so that’s meaningful,” he said.
Hart is now working with Budderfly to add solar panels on his four Sonics. Best of all, “I don’t have to do anything. They’re taking care of it all. They’re paying for it all and then I’ll share in the savings created from it.”
In the future, Hart would like to add EV chargers, an area where Budderfly currently doesn’t work. “I told them I’d love to be their Guinea pig in whatever they do.”
