Energy Savings Across Hundreds of Retail Locations

THE CHALLENGE

With no HVAC visibility or control across hundreds of Canadian locations, this national auto parts distributor had no way to identify, act on, or measure energy savings. Maintenance was entirely reactive — wait for something to break, then fix it.

Simple Rollout at Scale

Compared to competing solutions, Cognition was significantly easier to install. The Cognition team provided rollout project management support, and built-in cellular connectivity worked out of the box — no Wi-Fi configuration, no IT tickets, no network security negotiations.

A single HVAC technician could complete multiple location installs per day, with hardware for both HVAC and refrigeration paired and configured from a smartphone. The result: installation savings of approximately $75 per unit across the portfolio.

Visibility That Changed Behavior

Before Cognition, thermostats across all locations were set to a permanent hold — meaning HVAC equipment ran continuously, regardless of occupancy or time of day. The Cognition Dashboard gave users the tools to create flexible schedules, see when those schedules were overridden, and hold locations accountable for unnecessary usage.

Where problematic patterns persisted, the distributor's head office used Cognition's remote lockout feature to enforce appropriate settings centrally.

Since deploying Cognition, average HVAC runtime is down 20% across locations — translating to 8–11% savings on utility costs.

Centralized Information Management

Cognition also addressed a persistent operational gap: fragmented, inconsistent records about equipment across hundreds of locations. Equipment notes make it easy to log service calls, configuration changes, and maintenance history — accessible to both store-level staff and head office.

Utility bills are uploaded directly to the Dashboard for quick access and ongoing validation of energy savings, giving the distributor a single source of truth across the portfolio.

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