CHATSWORTH, CA — After early deployments that saved AutoZone, Family Dollar and other chains more than $131 million in energy costs, Venstar Inc. broadly went to market today with its Surveyor Energy Management System -- a package designed for small-box retail chains.

The system enables companies to manage the energy used for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, lighting, and electrical and mechanical equipment at multiple locations on and off site using a PC, laptop or smart phone app.

The energy management system works this way: Sensors are installed on HVAC, lighting panels and other equipment that consume electricity. The sensors communicate with the Surveyor system via the Internet to provide data on energy use, and facilities manager can tap into the system, at their desks or remotely, to set usage parameters, monitor consumption and more.

The Surveyor system can be adopted in a retrofit or in new construction. For example, HVAC manufacturers York and Carrier, offer Surveyor controls as a factory-installed option.

Using the system, a single facilities manager can control and monitor energy use at any one, "hundreds or even thousands of sites," said Steve Tudhope, the business director for the Surveyor at Venstar.

Field tests of the Surveyor show that the system typically delivers a 25 percent savings in energy costs within the first year, with a return on investment within 18 months, according to Tudhope, who oversees in-store testing of the energy management system in major small-box retail chains.

Tudhope also managed the deployments of the Surveyor at more than 12,700 locations in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico. The early rollouts grew out of work with major chains such as Family Dollar, whose nearly 7,000 stores in 44 states pull in $7 billion in sales revenue annually, and AutoZone.

The largest retailer of auto parts, AutoZone also logs annual sales revenue of $7 billion and has more than 4,500 locations. The chain was the host of the first Surveyor pilot, which initially involved 26 stores, in 2003.

Since then, the Suveryor has collectively saved its users $131,881,481 in energy costs (with company savings averaging $20 million a year) and almost 1.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, according to Venstar. That's equivalent to avoiding almost 860,000 metric tonnes of CO2e and taking 168,258 cars off the road, the company says.

With case studies and volumes of performance data to point to, "we think the system is solid," said Tudhope. "We have great testimonials and we're finally taking it to market."

Next Page: The Surveyor and Family Dollar.