How Prime AT&T Saved $250,000 Per Month on Electricity Costs with Smart HVAC Controls

Table of Contents

1. Summary
2. About AT&T / Prime Communications
3. Challenge: A lack of centralized HVAC control was causing sky-high energy costs
4. Solution: Ditching manual thermostats was the key to more efficient energy management 
5. Use Case 1: Prevent manual thermostat adjustments
6. Use Case 2: Monitor thermostat status remotely 
7. Use Case 3: Set heating/cooling schedules by region, city, or location
8. Results: Mysa HQ EMS drives $250,000 in monthly energy savings

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Summary

Challenge

With no centralized control over heating and cooling across 2,000+ stores, Prime Communications—North America’s largest authorized AT&T retailer — was dealing with daily comfort complaints that led to thermostat tampering by staff and HVAC systems running 24/7, causing energy costs to skyrocket.

Solution

Prime needed a lightweight, easy-to-deploy energy management system that gave them the ability to control their HVAC systems remotely, automate setback schedules, manage thermostat access, and receive alerts when issues occur. Mysa HQ EMS was the answer, and they went on to install over 2,910 smart thermostats across 2,020 sites.

Results

• Savings of 20%—or $250,000 per month—on energy costs and HVAC maintenance.
• Centralized remote control over HVAC equipment and store temperature across 2,000+ locations.
• Granular insights into energy consumption and equipment performance nationwide.
• Return on investment in under one year.

‍About AT&T / Prime Communications

As the largest privately-held AT&T Authorized Retailer in North America, Prime Communications is one of the most successful wireless retail businesses in the United States. Headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, Prime Communications owns over 2,000 AT&T retail locations, with more than 7,000 employees nation-wide.

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Challenge: A lack of centralized HVAC control was causing sky-high energy costs

Prime was struggling to effectively manage HVAC across their large portfolio of stores, leading to significant cost increases and operational inefficiencies. 

Their key challenges included:

• Heating or cooling empty stores for hours a day because they did not have a reliable way to adjust setpoints at open and close, leading to unnecessarily high electricity bills.
• Inconsistent temperature settings because setpoints were left to the frontline employees’ discretion, and standard setbacks were often forgotten or ignored.
• Excess equipment wear and tear due to employees cranking thermostat setpoints up or down in an attempt to warm up or cool down the spaces faster. 
• System failures, costly truck rolls, and hefty maintenance bills when HVAC was mismanaged by unqualified frontline employees.

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Solution: Ditching manual thermostats was the key to more efficient energy management 

With 2000+ locations across North America, Prime Communications needed:

• HVAC control and visibility across their entire portfolio
• To reduce/prevent thermostat tampering
• The ability to prevent unnecessary HVAC use during closed hours
• To significantly reduce their energy usage and costs
• A cost-effective energy management solution with a fast ROI

Mysa HQ was implemented nation-wide in over 2,020 sites with 2,910 devices installed. Prime’s facilities management team can now easily monitor heating, cooling and energy usage remotely and at scale. 

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Use Case 1: Prevent manual thermostat adjustments

Mysa HQ’s Full or Partial Lockout feature gives Prime the power to decide who can make manual thermostat adjustments and what adjustments they can make. Partial Lockout enables anyone to make adjustments within a pre-defined temperature range and for a set period of time, whereas Full Lockout requires an employee to input a PIN in order to make changes. These settings can be applied at the Site or Group level, balancing consistent comfort with management’s confidence that HVAC isn’t running unnecessarily.

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Use Case 2: Monitor thermostat status remotely 

With Mysa HQ, Prime logs in to their custom portal to view real-time, portfolio-wide thermostat status, including thermostat overrides by employees at the store-level.

They can now remotely troubleshoot issues with employee or customer comfort, pinpoint stores where system overrides are being applied most frequently, and easily identify which HVAC units may require maintenance. By having this precise level of oversight, Prime can now address HVAC issues quickly and reduce the time it takes for their mechanical contractor to diagnose the problem. 

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Use Case 3: Set heating/cooling schedules by region, city, or location

Mysa HQ’s thermostat grouping feature enables Prime to group thermostats together by location (at a national, regional, and site level), and apply different schedules to different spaces to optimize heating and cooling throughout the store.

If operating hours change, or a specific region is experiencing uncharacteristically hot or cold temperatures, Prime can remotely adjust those thermostats specifically with just a few clicks.

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Results: Mysa HQ EMS drives $250,000 in monthly energy savings

As a result of implementing Mysa HQ, Prime AT&T is enjoying:

• 20%—equivalent to $250,000 per month—on energy costs and HVAC maintenance., freeing up the budget for reinvestment into other initiatives.
• Centralized remote control over HVAC equipment and store temperature across 2,000+ locations. Facility managers now adjust setpoints, scheduling, and setbacks from a single platform. This eliminates the need for on-site interventions and ensures consistent comfort and compliance across every store.
• Granular insights into energy consumption and equipment performance nationwide. Real-time data at the device and location level helps identify underperforming equipment, spot regional usage trends, and transform HVAC management from reactive to proactive.
• Reduced unnecessary service calls thanks to Prime’s newfound visibility into HVAC performance and remote troubleshooting capabilities, has lowered their maintenance costs and reduced operational disruption.
• Return on investment in under one year. Unlike other EMS rollouts that can take years to pay off, Mysa HQ delivered a return on investment in under 12 months, positioning Prime AT&T to scale savings across their full portfolio with confidence.