Smart modernizations, real savings: How strategic building automation saved one district $800K a year

When it comes to modernizing aging systems, school administrators often approach facility purchases as simple, like-for-like replacements. However, with careful planning and a focus on efficiency, these acquisitions can often pay for themselves—and then some—in lower energy bills and maintenance costs over their entire lifespan. By considering these long-term savings, decision-makers can ensure that modernizations enhance current operations while providing lasting financial and operational benefits.

For example, today’s field devices and systems can:

• Automatically adjust temperatures and lighting levels when a scheduled meeting doesn’t take place, resulting in immediate energy savings.
• Reduce the time maintenance staff spend responding to hot or cold complaints.
• Enable predictive maintenance, allowing facilities teams to address problems proactively and avoid more costly repairs down the line.

These are all factors that facility managers for one central Illinois school district considered in their efforts to control costs and boost performance for the buildings they manage.

The energy efficiency challenge

In 2017, facilities managers at McLean County Unit School District 5, based in Normal, Illinois, recognized the urgent need for operational improvements. Like many school districts, they were managing buildings of varying ages, many of which had outdated systems that no longer performed as originally intended. Maintenance teams were overwhelmed by daily comfort complaints, and the absence of centralized controls meant technicians were constantly dispatched to manually adjust valves, dampers, and actuators across 30 facilities. Rising energy costs were making energy bills unsustainable, further straining the budget and diverting funds from other building improvements.

To address these challenges, district leadership launched an initiative to maximize building efficiency, using ENERGY STAR® certification guidelines as a benchmark.

Let’s dive deeper into how they achieved their goals.

Finding a solution

Alpha Controls & Services was fortunate to be chosen as the partner to help the district develop a comprehensive plan to automate its building management systems, thereby lowering costs by improving efficiency and comfort.

Facilities staff began rolling out mechanical and controls improvements in their least efficient buildings, including:

• Mechanical controls upgrades
• Boiler replacements
• Lighting upgrades
• Metering and monitoring implementations

The resulting energy-cost savings were then rolled into efforts to spread improvements to additional schools in their portfolio.

Today, 13 schools are running new scheduling software in collaboration with school staff to enable even further savings. The partnership remains active through monthly building-level Energy Star ratings reviews,  with properties that aren’t earning at least a 75 being targeted for improvement.

Within seven years, this upgrade investment has:

• Cut utility bills by one-third, resulting in almost $800,000/year in cost savings.
• Significantly reduced service calls.
• Freed up more funds for the district to meet other maintenance needs throughout its building portfolio. 
• Won the district national recognition from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Star program, with 90% of the district’s 23 school facilities being Energy Star certified since 2019.
• Allowed maintenance staff to allocate more time to long-term projects and less to daily equipment adjustments.

This push is also now being used as a learning opportunity, with one junior high school now considering a “virtual mechanical room”—a live energy dashboard that allows students to explore building operations through real-time energy data.

This effort serves as a model for what districts across the country can achieve by partnering with energy solutions experts to plan and implement automation-focused strategies that bring utility costs under control.

Broader energy-efficiency implications

The issues McLean County faced are not unique to its school system. K-12 districts, universities, libraries, and other public and nonprofit facilities face similar challenges— maintaining safe, comfortable buildings while managing costs. Here are four factors to keep in mind when your organization is looking to replace or modernize equipment:

1. View energy modernization as an investment, not an expense. Don’t focus on today’s upfront costs, but on savings that could accrue year-over-year.
2. Leverage technology and expert analysis. The right advisers will partner with you to identify a path toward greater efficiency and cost savings, rather than push for a quick sale.
3. Focus on long-term budget stability. In education and other nonprofit settings, one-time equipment purchases can be easier to manage than ongoing expenses, so look for systems that pay for themselves over time.
4. Prioritize taxpayer/stakeholder value and transparency. Again, taking a longer-term view of your operations and providing clear explanations of how system investments will continue to provide value 5-10 years down the road can build the trust needed the next time an upgrade is required.

Developing a strategic relationship with an energy-focused partner can help ensure your organization sees the same returns McLean County’s schools have earned. For example, at Alpha Controls, we’ve helped 55 K-12 school buildings generate more than $27,000,000 in savings.

Check out our Success Stories to learn about other organizations that have achieved similarly impressive savings. And reach out if you’d like to learn more about the ways investing in efficiency can improve your district’s bottom line.