Assisted living facilities operate under a truly unique business model. On the one hand, they resemble multifamily properties where residents take up residence on a longer-term basis, and occupancy rates are relatively stable. On the other hand, they’re similar to student housing and hotels where residency is never quite permanent, and operators offer a range of additional services and amenities (such as meal service, medical services, recreation, etc.).
In other words, there are significant overhead costs involved in operating an assisted living facility. Lights remain on in many common areas at all times, critical supplies (from food to medical equipment) must always be stocked, and staff need to be onsite around the clock.
But while the scope of the overhead required to operate a senior residence can’t be compromised, its costs are not necessarily fixed. Smart energy management technology not only improves resident comfort, but also allows senior home operators to optimize their energy management across 12 areas of their operations, reducing their overhead costs while increasing their profitability.
Core Energy Management Strategies
For senior living management companies, the most direct path to reducing operational costs lies in optimizing how energy is used on-site. From heating and cooling to lighting and water systems, nearly every facet of daily operation relies on some form of energy management.
By upgrading to commercial-grade HVAC management tools and energy management systems (EMS), operators can not only cut energy waste and energy costs, but enhance resident comfort, streamline maintenance, and improve staff efficiency.
1. Smart Thermostats
Climate control is an essential part of any assisted living facility (or any other commercial property for that matter). Whether through heating or cooling, resident comfort is critical to the operation of any senior residence. However, heating or cooling also represents a significant portion of both an assisted living facility’s energy consumption and its overhead costs.
Smart thermostats allow senior residence operators to reduce and optimize their energy consumption around actual occupancy patterns. When networked with occupancy sensors and door/window sensors, smart thermostats respond to real-time fluctuations in occupancy, reducing energy consumption whenever a space is unoccupied by ensuring that a room is not overheated or overcooled when no one is in the room.
So while senior residents can set their preferred temperature settings in their personal units, the smart thermostats will ensure that energy isn’t needlessly consumed when the unit is unoccupied. All the while, operators can ensure that energy consumption in common areas is similarly optimized.
Of course, not all smart thermostats are the same. Specifically, senior living facilities require more of a commercial-grade solution that can manage multiple units as well as common areas. Verdant’s ZX and VX Thermostats, for instance, offer a range of features over their consumer-grade counterparts (such as those offered by Nest and Ecobee), including night occupancy mode, flexible setbacks, advanced humidity control, and energy savings reports.
2. Smart HVAC Systems
While smart thermostats and occupancy sensors represent the hardware side of the energy management equation for senior residences, there is also a software side. Specifically, senior housing managers also have access to smart HVAC systems to help them minimize their energy consumption and energy costs.
For instance, Verdant Plus (and our Thermostat Manager app) integrates with occupancy sensors and smart thermostats to collect and aggregate a variety of data sets (including peak demand loads, historical thermodynamics, and local weather patterns, etc.). Those data sets are then analyzed by sophisticated machine learning algorithms to continuously optimize energy consumption throughout the year in real-time.
In other words, while smart thermostat hardware provides senior housing managers with the infrastructure to employ energy management, smart HVAC systems provide them not only with the insight they need to manage and reduce energy costs, but the tools to automate the entire process.
3. Air Source Heat Pumps
Of course, smart thermostats and HVAC systems are not the only way that senior residence operators can optimize their energy consumption and save on energy costs. Advances in actual HVAC hardware technology also offer new energy management opportunities.
Specifically, Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs) transfer warm or cold air from outside a facility to inside. The principles behind ASHP technology rely on using the vapor compression-refrigeration to absorb warm or cold air from one space, and then release it into another. The advantage for assisted living operators, however, is that ASHPs can be used as energy efficient space heaters (or coolers), removing the need to overload a central HVAC system to achieve the thermodynamic requirements of a smaller or compartmental space.
4. Smart Lighting
In terms of energy management, lighting represents another significant overhead cost for senior residences. However, similar to how smart thermostats and smart HVAC systems leverage occupancy sensors and machine learning algorithms, smart lighting systems also allow assisted living facility operators to manage lighting energy consumption by adapting to real-time changes in tenant occupancy patterns.
Many smart lighting systems can also be integrated with smart energy management systems. Verdant’s line of occupancy sensors, for instance, can not only integrate with third-party lighting systems to ensure that energy consumption adjusts to real-time occupancy patterns, but also allow senior residence operators to monitor and optimize both lighting and HVAC energy consumption through a single interface. Finally, smart lighting systems also facilitate a safer and more comfortable experience for residents.
And the energy cost saving potential of smart lighting systems, moreover, should not be underestimated. Indeed, by converting to a smart LED lighting system, some commercial properties have managed to cut energy costs by 75% and improved productivity by 20%.
5. Automatic Shutdown Sockets
One significant way that senior residence operators inflate energy costs is through what’s called “vampire power draw”. Also known as standby power, it “refers to the way electric power is consumed by electronic and electrical appliances while they are switched off,” but still plugged in and on standby mode.
However, Automatic Shutdown Sockets can help mitigate this residual energy consumption pattern. Simply put, Automatic Shutdown Sockets are basically smart power outlets that use either timers or infrared sensors to cut power to any connected device when (1) the device is not in use, or (2) the room is outright unoccupied. In other words, Automatic Shutdown Sockets allow senior residence operators to save on powering appliances and other devices whenever they are not in use or residents are not in their units.
6. Smart Water Management
Finally, just as water is a necessary condition for life as we know it, every assisted living facility relies on it to provide every service they offer. Indeed, whether it’s for resident water usage in their private units (showers, drinking, etc.), preparing and providing meals, or simply maintaining sanitation and cleanliness, no senior residence can operate without water access.
Of course, water usage also impacts energy costs. From being pumped throughout every unit to being heated for various uses, senior residence operators incur energy costs whenever water is used.
Just as senior residence operators can use smart HVAC and other EMSs to manage and optimize energy consumption, they can also implement low-cost water meters to monitor water usage through the property, reducing energy waste associated with pumping and heating unused water. After all, a single leaky toilet can cost as much as $840/year (not to mention the costs of any potential water damage).
Advanced Energy Management Strategies
Once physical smart infrastructures systems are in place (e.g. smart thermostats, HVAC energy management systems, etc.) senior residence operators can then implement a range of advanced energy management from extracting insights from building data to automating energy management decisions.
From PMS integrations to predictive maintenance and demand response, these tools offer deeper control and smarter resource allocation. They not only reduce energy costs but also support long-term planning, asset protection, and operational resilience across entire portfolios.
7. Energy Management System Integration with PMS
A Property Management System (PMS) integration connects a senior residences’ central management software with external solutions, including smart thermostats, energy management systems, and other devices. Verdant’s energy management solutions integrate seamlessly with PMS and smart technologies, enabling real-time automation of HVAC settings, occupancy detection, and energy-saving modes.
This seamless communication enhances resident comfort, reduces energy waste, and improves operational efficiency. With Verdant’s PMS integration, senior residence managers gain data-driven insights to enhance energy efficiency while maintaining a comfortable guest experience, all without requiring manual intervention from hotel staff.
8. Predictive Maintenance
Just as smart energy management systems allow assisted living operators to monitor, measure, and optimize their energy consumption, Predictive Maintenance allows them to use sensor data (often from the same hardware) to track wasteful or hazardous energy consumption trends, identify malfunctioning hardware, and alert maintenance staff before (1) those wasteful patterns become too costly, and/or (2) the issue escalates into a much more problematic and costly one.
For instance, HVAC systems will fluctuate through varying levels of output based on occupancy and weather-based parameters. As a result, there will be more or less wear-and-tear on their physical components.
Through Predictive Maintenance, however, rather than waiting for a component to break down or a critical failure to occur before being serviced or replaced, maintenance staff can diagnose maintenance requirements based on system performance, prevent system failures, reduce the costs of operating a faulty system, and prevent having to replace a unit that was allowed to deteriorate beyond the point of repair.
Verdant’s online management platform, for example, collects HVAC runtime data in real-time, and then assigns units an efficiency rating. This rating, in turn, is an indicator of how quickly a room can be heated or cooled back to the resident’s preferred temperature, and provides engineering teams with critical alerts when HVAC equipment is in need of attention. The result is that property managers and operators can ensure that all HVAC infrastructure is operating within peak energy consumption parameters, as well as predict and/or prevent critical (and costly) infrastructure failure.
9. Demand Response Programs
While smart thermostats and HVAC energy management systems are all reactive steps toward optimizing energy consumption, there are also proactive steps that senior living operators can take toward reducing energy costs.
Specifically, Demand Response programs allow senior living operators to earn credits against their energy costs whenever they reduce their consumption during peak demand times. Through a Demand Response program, senior residence managers are alerted prior to forecast peak usage ‘events’, and unless they opt-out of that event, their smart appliances will adjust to draw less energy from the grid during that event. This allows property managers to not only reduce their energy consumption when it counts the most, but then sell that energy back into the grid, and apply that revenue against future energy costs.
10. Solar panels & Renewable Energy Sources
Commercial properties both large and small are integrating solar power infrastructure into their infrastructure to improve energy management and reduce energy costs.
In fact, solar panels offer senior residence operators a two-fold opportunity: (1) to reduce their energy consumption from the mainstream grid, and (2) to sell back any excess production back into that grid through their Demand Response program. So not only are businesses able to save on their energy costs, but possibly even create new revenue streams to help subsidize whatever energy consumption they incur the rest of the time.
Strategic Energy Management Opportunities
Beyond infrastructure upgrades and system integrations, there are broader opportunities that senior living management companies can leverage to maximize the financial and operational impact of their energy management initiatives. And these strategies don’t require additional hardware. They only require smarter planning, better data, and an understanding of the incentives and insights available to today’s operators.
From unlocking utility rebates to benchmarking performance across properties, these opportunities can turn energy efficiency into a competitive advantage. And when combined with smart HVAC systems and energy management platforms, they help operators reduce costs, track ROI, and drive sustainable growth across their portfolio.
11. Utility Rebates & Other Government Incentives
For senior living management companies looking to modernize their energy infrastructure, utility rebates and government incentives can dramatically reduce upfront costs and accelerate ROI. Whether retrofitting an older building or outfitting a new development, rebate programs offer financial relief for adopting smart HVAC systems, occupancy-based controls, and energy management technologies like Verdant’s smart thermostats.
The key is knowing what programs apply to your property type and region. From federal and state rebates to local utility incentives, these programs reward investments in energy efficiency, and often cover a significant portion of hardware, installation, or both. And because Verdant’s smart thermostats meet key eligibility requirements (such as advanced scheduling, occupancy sensing, and EMS integration), they frequently qualify across a wide range of federal, state, or municipal programs.
12. Using Data Analytics for Energy Benchmarking
A big part of strategy is foresight, and smart energy management gives senior residence operators the data and insight they need to make smarter strategic decisions. With the right analytics tools in place, senior living management companies can benchmark energy performance across units, floors, and even entire portfolios. These insights reveal where energy is being used inefficiently, where systems may be underperforming, and where to prioritize capital upgrades.
Energy benchmarking turns raw data into actionable intelligence. By comparing energy usage over time or against similar properties, operators can identify outliers, set performance targets, and track progress toward sustainability goals. Combined with Verdant Plus’s EMS dashboards and predictive alerts, benchmarking empowers property managers to proactively manage energy — and not just react to utility bills after the fact.
Energy management and overhead costs
Senior residences rely on a range of infrastructure to operate and care for their residents. Unlike other commercial properties, assisted living facilities simply can’t compromise on many of their overhead costs to improve their profitability. The exact price tag of that overhead, however, is not necessarily fixed.
Specifically, senior residence operators have many opportunities to reduce operational costs through energy management technologies. From smart HVAC and lighting systems to solar panels and predictive maintenance, there is no shortage of ways that senior residence operators can use technology to reduce their energy costs and improve their financial performance.