Connect Kitchen Equipment and Monitor Facility Performance with Open Kitchen

Open Kitchen is the only IoT-based solution on the market that combines equipment monitoring, facility performance, and food safety. As we’ve seen, it’s more important than ever to streamline operations. With visibility over a wide range of equipment and processes, it’s easier to function at full capacity. It’s easier to be profitable. When those processes are all available in the same portal, it enhances the capabilities of commercial kitchens even more. This is the goal of a connected smart kitchen, which we like to call an Open Kitchen®.

Open Kitchen from Powerhouse Dynamics is an Internet of Things, or IoT solution used by foodservice operators to connect and monitor HVAC, refrigeration, and foodservice cooking equipment, across any brand. This level of connectivity provides access to real-time data on food prep and storage, tracks and handles energy management on HVAC equipment, gives visibility on important key performance indicators, and empowers chefs to remotely distribute recipe updates to cooking equipment, which is a big asset for chains and multi-location restaurants.

Here’s a simple breakdown of the Open Kitchen capabilities:

Open Kitchen from Powerhouse Dynamics is an award-winning technology. As listed in Industry Era Review Magazine, this solution for efficiently connecting commercial kitchens was listed as one of the top 10 IoT solutions for 2021.

“First of all, we connect to and monitor equipment – from ovens to fryers to refrigerators to HVAC equipment – and leverage both alarm codes generated by the equipment itself and patented analytics to provide advance warnings of equipment issues. For example, an oven may report that a motor is failing. Alternatively, we have set up alerts to indicate that food is cooking at the wrong temperature or was put in the oven before it was defrosted,” says Martin Flusberg, President of Powerhouse Dynamics. “We also offer controls that ensure that equipment is only on when it needs to be, and that settings – such as thermostat settings – follow company guidelines at all times. A smart defrost control enables walk-in coolers and freezers to initiate defrost cycles only when needed – instead of multiple times per day as normally done – significantly reducing energy usage.”

Open Kitchen Can Minimize Water Costs for Restaurants

Restaurants use a lot of water as part of their operations with more than half of that water usage coming from the back-of-the-house. In total, studies show total usage as high as 25,000 gallons per day but the average restaurant water bill is closer to 5,800 gallons of use*. This can translate to over 2 million gallons per year, and at a rate of four cents per gallon, the total is more than $8,000 annually. And that’s likely on the lower end of the usage scale.

One of the quickest ways to cut down on water usage is to pinpoint the locations where it’s being used in excess. With monitoring equipment and accurate reporting that depicts water usage throughout a commercial kitchen, it’s easier to track any potential issues and make the necessary changes. With systems like Open Kitchen, it’s possible to monitor usage in real time, as well as receive alerts when there are any potential leaks. Because leaks are the top cause of water waste, immediately knowing when they happen can save money and headaches for restaurant operators.

Here’s one example of how Open Kitchen can help a large, national chain:

Connecting a commercial kitchen with Open Kitchen can help a national chain like Arby’s save up to 30 percent on electricity consumption totaling more than $40 million in savings. In addition to energy management systems, Open Kitchen can also help monitor and record refrigeration temperature to streamline the food safety reporting process. It can help calculate labor costs. And it can report data in real time to mobile devices.

To learn more about creating an Open Kitchen in your operation, regardless of what brands of equipment you use, click below to visit OpenKitchen.com.

*Statistics from the white paper Water, Water Everywhere . . . and 10 Ways for Restaurants to Stem the Flow by PowerDynamics