Jamie Schools, Executive Director of Administration at Legacy Christian Church in Overland Park, Kansas, uses Events2HVAC to save time and energy by automating HVAC based on individual room schedules. Schools oversees facilities, finance, safety and security, and human resources for all of three of Legacy’s campuses – and they are soon adding a fourth campus. For him, Events2HVAC is a blessing.
“Once it was setup and we got things where they need to be…the word is autopilot.” (Jamie Schools)
“Personally, it could not come at a better time,” Schools said, “because with us getting ready to launch this fourth campus, it’s just been a huge blessing because I am so pulled in so many different directions that this is giving me absolute peace of mind. It takes one chunk off of my plate that I don’t even have to think about. Once it was setup and we got things where they need to be…the word is autopilot.”
Schools was motivated to become a beta tester for Events2HVAC because of the potential labor savings. He was already scheduling thermostats based on event schedules in Dean Evans EMS Lite, but it was very tedious and time consuming – and it was nearly impossible to go on vacation.
“It definitely has saved unbelievable amount of hours in regards to scheduling and making sure that everything was turned on when it was supposed to be,” Schools said.
Legacy has experienced some energy savings, in spite of the fact that they were already scheduling down to the room level before using Events2HVAC.
Schools said, “I would say there is probably without a doubt energy savings that have been received from a standpoint of sometimes in the morning between 8 and 8:30 a stat would get turned on for an event that was held in the morning, and then it may not have gotten turned off until 4 o’clock when the event actually started at 9 and was over at 10. But somebody just didn’t go back in and turn that device off. So we were heating and cooling that space unnecessarily.”
Schools said two of his favorite features of Events2HVAC are the daily report he gets by email at midnight each night that summarizes the commands for all events scheduled for the next day and the email notification he receives if a command is not executed successfully.
“There is fantastic communication from Events2HVAC,” Schools said. “You know if something is not functioning properly. If, for some reason, an event didn’t get sent to the thermostat because the thermostat was offline, then you know that there is a problem with the thermostat, and you are going to get an email immediately as soon as that doesn’t happen. So that’s a great feature.”
Reliability is always important, but perhaps even more important for Schools with three – and now four campuses to take care of simultaneously.
“For me personally, it’s just, it’s peace of mind,” Schools said. “We’ve not had any hiccups in regards to whether or not Events2HVAC is going to actually work.”
“I would absolutely say it’s a great program. It’s a great tool to have. It’s a definite.” (Jamie Schools)
He added that his staff knows, “If the room is scheduled, if you go through the steps and it’s scheduled in EMS, you know the room is going to be clean, the door is going to be unlocked, and the heating and cooling is going to be in place because all of it integrates together. And so, as long as we take the right step and it gets reserved, everything is golden.“
When asked if there was anything else Schools would like churches to know about Events2HVAC, he responded, “I would absolutely say it’s a great program. It’s a great tool to have. It’s a definite. If it was something that small to medium-sized churches could implement, it would make a lot of people in their congregation a lot happier because a lot of complaints that we get are in regards to room temperature. And knowing that aspect is just on autopilot, there is definite customer service satisfaction in that in regards to your members.”
Events2HVAC Integrated Systems:
Dean Evans EMS Lite
NetworkThermostat Net/X thermostats
Honeywell Tridium JACE controller
Johnson Controls P2000 Security
Update 5/20/2012:
Legacy Christian Church brought a 4th building online to their campus which was specified with BACnet HVAC controls and the JCI P2000 door access control. They were able to add more rooms to their license and activate two additional devices interfaces to support BACnet/IP and the P2000 door access. They currently have more than 80 rooms integrated to 3 separate vendor interfaces.
About Events2HVAC™
Events2HVAC Event Automation Software (www.events2hvac.com) is designed to save your facility energy, labor, and money by integrating your facility's event/room reservation system directly to the room's environmental controls.
Lighting, door access, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning can all be turned on and off or adjusted automatically based on the scheduled events for that room.
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