CLEVELAND - Honeywell has announced a new rental program through its Novar division called FlexStart to help commercial national account customers benefit from smart-grid ready building controls and energy management systems technology. With FlexStart, multi-site businesses rent - rather than purchase - Novar’s Opus family of smart-grid ready building controls and energy management systems (EMS) technology to gain immediate savings without an up-front capital investment.

Energy consumption is a significant cost driver for multi-site businesses, such as retailers, restaurants, supermarkets, theaters, banks, and other chain business operations, noted Honeywell. Novar’s centralized monitoring facility and energy management solutions enable these multi-site operations to optimize energy consumption across their sites and drive overall cost savings.

“With Novar’s FlexStart rental program, multi-site businesses can become cash-flow positive in month one,” said Novar President Dean Lindstrom. “We developed the FlexStart rental program to help customers improve operations and reduce their energy spend while enjoying flexible payment terms with no up-front capital investment.”

According to Honeywell, businesses can realize a 20 percent reduction on their energy costs through the use of Novar’s Opus technology. Using Novar Professional Services can further drive savings, by having a team of energy experts working around the clock ensuring every dollar of conservation is being achieved. Novar Professional Services can result in an additional 5-8 percent reduction in their energy spending, and have over 100 percent return on investment.

Novar’s Opus family of building control and EMS systems help national account operators with hundreds or thousands of facilities by providing a way of monitoring, controlling, and managing how energy is consumed across their portfolio of sites - whether they are self managing from their own corporate headquarters, or engaging Novar to manage them from the Novar Operations Center (NOC). Customers use Opus to simultaneously manage HVAC, lighting, and refrigeration control, enforce corporate standards, and take advantage of financial incentives offered as part of smart grid utility programs that require the business to reduce electricity consumption on demand.

FlexStart offers a flexible, affordable means of immediately deploying Novar’s technology, which is capable of supporting utilities and Independent System Operator (ISO) initiatives such as time-of-day pricing and automated demand response (ADR).

“Novar is committed to helping our customers prepare for upcoming smart grid requirements such as being charged more during times of peak use, such as in the afternoon on a hot summer day,” said David Haynes, Novar vice president of marketing. “We offer a full range of energy management solutions to meet our customers’ unique needs,” he said. “Customers can choose as much or as little as they need.”

The FlexStart program is available for new installations and upgrades of existing building controls and energy management systems which include HVAC, lighting, and refrigeration systems. Under FlexStart, Novar also extends its full equipment warranty throughout the full term of the rental agreement, and customers may also realize tax benefits related to monthly rental payments under the program.

For more information, visit www.novar.com.

Publication date: 07/05/2010