How IoT Is Transforming Maintenance of Older Buildings
The National Heritage List for England has nearly 400 000 entries for listed buildings. Building management systems don’t need to be hundreds of years old to have legacy systems that lag behind the times.
Older buildings pose unique challenges when it comes to maintenance, including:
- Ageing building materials and fabrications, which are prone to decay, damp and mould, and inefficiency. This requires careful, constant monitoring.
- Often difficult to access plans and documentation.
- Building management systems that are not fit for purpose as the use of buildings have changed over time.
- Increased risks – including fire and flood.
- In the case of listed and heritage buildings, the need for consent and adherence to laws.
- Sustainability of buildings to meet modern, evolving environmental regulations.
- The high cost of repairs and maintenance processes with the above in mind.
Using IoT to Alert Maintenance Teams to Older Building Needs
IoT sensors are easy to deploy, cost-effective, and easy to scale – providing powerful data insights to inspire action (or reaction) as needed by maintenance teams. With the use of wireless plug-and-play sensors that are battery-powered, many of the challenges that listed buildings pose are negated.
Smart Meters and Energy Management
The built environment is one of the greatest contributors to climate change, generating 35-40% of the U.K.’s carbon emissions. Historical buildings account for 5% of these emissions. Government has prioritised retrofitting to get ahead of decarbonisation and energy efficiency requirements to meet 2050 net zero targets.
Insulation issues heating and cooling, lighting, and renewables are on the minds of all savvy businesses. Smart meters and energy management solutions from professionals like Voltix Services remove the guesswork from the process.
Understanding consumption is the first step to identifying easy gains for efficiency and crafting long-term strategies. IoT sensors assist in many ways – for example, by remotely monitoring temperature, teams can assess HVAC performance. Undesirable metrics can inspire action – whether immediate or over time – to address the most pressing efficiency issues and create a step-by-step priority list to get older buildings up to speed with modern requirements.
Fire, Flood, and Leak Detection
By remotely monitoring water consumption and moisture levels, maintenance teams use data insights as early warning systems for flood and leak detection. Similarly, remote fire safety monitoring tools can assist with optimal maintenance scheduling for compliance and intervention in event of a fire. This has the potential to prevent downtime, and avert structural damage and high costs of repair. This monitoring is completely automated and remote, removing the time and resources required for manual inspections.
Condition-Based Maintenance
By remotely monitoring run-time and operational hours of critical machines, businesses are able to step away from calendar-based maintenance to more accurately timed condition-based maintenance. This reduces the risk of system or machine failures and ensures key machinery is kept in top working condition.
Security
Monitoring motion or the opening and shutting of doors allows for advanced security protocols. Alerts are sent to a remotely accessible dashboard for immediate action.
Damp and Mould
Damp and mould traditionally take some time to detect. Remotely monitoring conditions that give way to mould protects the structural integrity of older buildings and the wellbeing of their occupants.
Contact Voltix Services For Advanced Maintenance Solutions for Older Buildings
Live building monitoring solutions have the potential to unlock many benefits for businesses located in older buildings. This includes cost-saving potential, reduced need for manual processes to monitor buildings as required, and actionable insights to reduce the impact and damage of issues.
These factors also play a role in ensuring buildings that prioritise the safety, wellness, and wellbeing of tenants and guests. Additionally, with extensive efficiency opportunities, there are also data-led ESG advantages.
Contact Voltix Services today to discuss your needs and live building monitoring solutions.