With 2.53
million households in the UK classified as fuel poor, Vaillant is turning to
connected technology to help social housing providers alleviate fuel poverty
and increase energy efficiency across their housing stock.
Vaillant
has developed a new social housing gateway that allows social landlords to
remotely monitor boilers within their housing stock to manage energy costs,
reduce downtime and accelerate repairs.
Compatible
with ecoFIT/ecoTEC sustain and ecoTEC pro boilers, the gateway uses the GSM
(Global System for Mobile communication). GSM is used by all major mobile phone
networks in the UK and is regarded as the most secure communication standard,
providing reassurance that data will be safe. Furthermore, using GSM eliminates
the need to use a tenant’s Wi-Fi connection.
The system
detects underperforming boilers that are using too much energy, whilst remote
monitoring allows landlords to monitor energy consumption and set optimum
performance and comfort settings for their tenants.
To minimise
costly and unnecessary service visits, the software can provide a predicted
date of when the system water pressure will drop below the failure point, or
notify the landlord when any connected boiler falls below the required water
pressure. Landlords can then contact the tenant and send them one of Vaillant’s
instructional videos on how to repressurise the boiler, or if necessary,
arrange for an engineer to visit to prevent the issue from escalating.
The social
housing gateway will provide insights on each boiler to help improve ‘first
time fix’ rates by suggesting example fixes for fault codes based on historic
success. It can even determine the quickest route for an engineer to visit
multiple properties in one day.
The
software can be interfaced with existing programs, such as housing or asset
management systems. This integration means multiple pieces of software can all
be managed from one common interface, making for a smoother process and removes
the need for further staff training on new software.
To assist
with the decision-making process, Vaillant has developed a trial portal which
allows social landlords to sample the benefits of having such data at their
disposal. The portal has much of the functionality of the full version,
including the ability to view boiler health information, receive fault alerts
and export jobs to engineers.
Steve
Cipriano, Commercial Director at Vaillant, comments: “Our new social housing
gateway provides social landlords with robust and reliable data, enabling them
to be more proactive and make informed decisions regarding their tenants’
wellbeing and housing stock. It is a truly scalable solution that seamlessly
integrates into existing software, workflows and processes.
“This
development is part of a wider initiative to support the fight against fuel
poverty and improve the standard of living for all connected tenants.”
