How Ponytail works

Ponytail reads everything overnight, then tells you what changed.

Every night, Ponytail reads all the building data you already collect. Meters, schedules, setpoints, runtime, weather. It compares each building to how it should behave and keeps only the few that have drifted. This page walks through how it does that, and how to read the evidence it gives back.

Last night · read 1,240 signals · surfaced 5 worth your time.

The engine

What Ponytail does every night.

Read

Ponytail pulls every meter, schedule, setpoint and runtime log, plus the weather. It is a read-only connection to the system you already run.

Expect

Ponytail builds a model of how each building should behave, hour by hour. The model is the schedule the building was designed to keep, adjusted for weather and use.

Compare

Ponytail measures the gap between what happened and what should have. When that gap is real and it costs you money, it becomes a finding.

Prove

Ponytail names the building, the change, the date, who made it, and the cost. The short list arrives by 6 AM with the evidence attached.

The evidence

Open any finding. See exactly how Ponytail knows.

Every finding shows its working. You see the line the building actually followed, the line it should have followed, and the gap between them. That gap is what it costs you. Open any finding to see it.

Finding

Building 7 ran off-schedule 18 nights.

Boone HVAC · setpoint overridden March 4 · never reverted

$4,920

It should drop to 62 degrees after the building empties at 7 PM. It hasn't, for 18 nights running. Someone overrode the setpoint to fix a cold complaint and then forgot to put it back. The purple band is the energy you paid for after the building was already empty.

Observed Expected

Building load · kW

Nights off-schedule18 ▲

Cost to date$4,920 ▲

The fix1 setpoint

Watch

Library AHU-3 has been short-cycling since the 9th.

12 starts/hour · expected 4 · compressor wear climbing

$1,180/wk

The unit should start about four times an hour and then run. Instead it starts and stops every five minutes. Each start spikes the power draw and wears out the compressor. The jagged line below is the unit switching on and off far more than it should.

Observed starts Expected

Compressor · starts/hr

Starts per hour12 ▲

Cost per week$1,180 ▲

The fixWiden deadband

Waste

Rec Center runs at full load every weekend.

No occupancy Sat–Sun · setback never engages

$1,610/wk

The building is empty on Saturday and Sunday, so the plant should drop to a weekend setback. Instead it runs at full weekday load both days. The purple band over the weekend is two days of heating and cooling an empty building, every week.

Observed Expected

Plant load · kW

Wasted days/week2 ▲

Cost per week$1,610 ▲

The fixWeekend setback

The other 36 buildings are within bounds. Ponytail only speaks up when something's worth your time.

Your savings

Put your own portfolio in.

Most campuses Ponytail reads are wasting 8 to 15 percent of their energy spend on drift like the findings above. Move the sliders to match your portfolio to see roughly what that is worth.

Buildings in your portfolio41

Annual energy spend$4.2M

Drift Ponytail typically finds12%

Most portfolios land between 8% and 15%.

Estimated savings · year one

$504,000

≈ $12,293 per building, per year

Ponytail finds this overnight and attaches the evidence. It works on the system you already run, with no new hardware to install.

See it on your buildings

A rough estimate from portfolio averages. Your real number comes from a two-week read of your own data.

Show Ponytail your buildings.

Give Ponytail read-only access for two weeks. It comes back with the findings already costing you money, and you decide if it's worth keeping.

Book a demo Talk to the team