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Success Story: California Family Fitness Centers

Partner Information

Located in Carmichael, California
30,000 sq. ft. exercise facility
Annual Cash Savings: $32,400
Annual Energy Savings: 433,000 kWh
Payback period: 3 years
Prevented 530,000 lbs. of pollution

Service and Product Provider

Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD)

Fitness Centers Trim the Waste Line

California Family Fitness Centers, a rapidly growing company based in Carmichael, CA, that offers exercise facilities for the health conscious, knows that keeping long-term operating costs down is the key to a fit business.

The company’s owners, Russ Kuhn and Larry Guru, are relative newcomers to the fitness industry, but their success is undeniable. Starting with one facility in 1994 their company has grown enough that they now operate seven facilities today. Clearly, their concern with energy efficiency ties in with the continued success of their company.

Thanks to their efforts in making two of their facilities as energy efficient as possible, their company received a year 2000 ENERGY STAR for Small Business Award.

High Efficiency Promotes Financial Health

Right from the beginning, the company installed energy efficient lighting and heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) technology in its first facility that opened in 1994. Standard fluorescent lamps were replaced with high efficiency T-8s with electronic ballasts. They also installed high efficiency package HVAC systems. Thanks to these retrofits that facility is saving approximately 114,000 kWh annually, or about $10,400 per year. In addition, the facility’s maintenance costs are lower and the patrons are more comfortable, thanks to better lighting and more efficient heating and cooling.

Burning Off the Energy Fat

Energized by successfully trimming waste at its original facility, the owners want to cash in on energy savings at its other facilities. So far, they have retrofitted for energy efficiency one other, much larger facility, and plan to retrofit the other facilities as well.

The success the company had at renovating the second facility is even more dramatic. As before, it replaced the existing lights and HVAC systems with high efficiency T-8s and high efficiency package HVAC systems. The energy savings are huge — approximately 319,000 kWh annually, or about $22,000 per year.

Energy Discipline = Fiscal Fitness

Part of the success of California Family Fitness Centers is attributable to the desire of its two owners to keep operating costs down. That’s key to its long-term growth plan. Being shrewd businessmen, they know the value of seeking out the advice of experts in the energy field. Their local utility, Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) provided key technical advice and even offered incentives to further reduce their payback time.

Thanks to the dramatic savings the company has received at the two facilities it retrofitted for energy efficiency, and thanks to the incentives offered by SMUD, the payback for installing energy efficient lighting and HVAC systems is only about three years. After that, the company will continue to reap the financial rewards of lower operating costs and more attractive and comfortable facilities.

A Healthy Future

Originally the company expanded by taking over existing facilities, but its financial growth has been so significant that it has moved to constructing its own facilities. Building from the ground up, the company’s new facilities will be designed from the get-go to be as energy efficient as possible.

With long-term thinking like this, California Family Fitness Centers are fit for financial and environmental success.

For exercising its brains and saving money on energy costs, the company received a year 2000 ENERGY STAR for Small Business Award.