SELWOOD HOUSING TO REDUCE FLUSHING REQUIREMENT BY 75% USING REMOTE TECHNOLOGY
Selwood Housing, a social housing provider managing almost 7000 homes for rent and shared ownership, based in the South West, has successfully completed a thorough evaluation of GUARDIAN® remote technology. This low cost pilot enabled Selwood Housing to demonstrate a compelling business case; saving the organisation time, money, energy and water.
Throughout the 12 week evaluation, the GUARDIAN remote monitoring system, designed and manufactured in the UK by Plexus Innovation, provided Selwood Housing, remotely and in real time, with temperature measurements required for legionella compliance management and accurately identified outlets requiring weekly flushing.
Selwood Housing turned to remote technology in response to a range of business challenges:
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Traditional use of monthly manual temperature checks is cumbersome and administration heavy, using valuable manpower which could be used elsewhere, such as fire safety.
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Manual methods also increase the Carbon footprint of the organisation, with vans required to visit every property, weekly.
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Water and energy waste is increased by flushing every outlet, required because historically, there is no way of detecting usage profile of an asset.
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Better understanding of TMV condition required to enable proactive reduction of scald risk due to a failing asset.
Dominic Walmsley, senior property surveyor at Selwood Housing, said:
“The digital reporting is loved by the team already, as it is so much more convenient than the manual process we used to have to adopt before.
“We went into the pilot to automate our water flushing and legionella compliance as much as possible, we get weekly reports which we find really useful and removes the need to process an admin heavy data report.
“We are now only flushing those assets that are required, reducing time that technicians open outlets. The data gives us a better understanding of our TMV performance and whether there is a scalding risk – we had a few highlighted to us, for which we’ve been able to take relevant action.
“It now has the full support of our entire team and executive board, and we look forward to rolling it out across the rest of our properties in the next two years.”
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ROCKLIFFE HALL INVESTS IN INNOVATIVE GUARDIAN® TECHNOLOGY
Rockliffe Hall, a luxury 5-star golf, spa and hotel resort in Darlington, is leading the way in the hospitality industry by being the first to invest in an innovative remote technology, following a successful pilot scheme.
The pilot of GUARDIAN® successfully highlighted business improvement areas for the facilities team and senior management. GUARDIAN® has demonstrated throughout the pilot that significant water and energy waste reductions can be enabled, positively contributing to the resort’s operational costs and environmental footprint.
Designed, developed and manufactured in the UK by Plexus Innovation, GUARDIAN® is a must-have remote IoT technology that measures temperature, capable of detecting a range of water system issues such as taps left running, water leaks, water heaters under stress and failing assets.
Based on real time understanding, reports and alerts enable early intervention to be taken before a situation becomes a crisis, whilst the monitoring of temperature also helps protect against the risks of legionella and scalding.
Ian Murray, managing director of Plexus Innovation, said:
“Working with a high caliber hotel like Rockliffe Hall has been an ideal pilot for GUARDIAN® in the hospitality sector, as they take their guests and staff wellbeing, their overheads and their environmental footprint very seriously.
“A hot tap left running for just one hour can waste enough water to fill six baths and the same amount of energy a domestic household typically uses in a day. If you multiply that by the frequency this can happen in at a hotel and the length of time before housekeeping, a new guest or a maintenance man typically discovers it… clearly, the savings can be quite significant as GUARDIAN®’s automated alert system allows for quick action.”
Already proving popular in the social housing and care sector, as well as being ideal for health, retail, education and industry, GUARDIAN® is now ready to take the hospitality and leisure industry under its’ wing too.
Jason Adams, managing director at Rockliffe Hall, said:
“For a low monthly cost, we are now getting data that not only assists our team with compliance but is also a way to save money and reduce risk across a number of key residential and operational areas.
“It is reassuring to know GUARDIAN® identified issues we would have otherwise not been aware of, is ensuring we protect our guests and staff and that we will not be unknowingly wasting as much water or energy as we clearly used to be.
“The Rockliffe Hall team is now looking forward to GUARDIAN® providing more efficiency savings in the rooms in Tiplady Lodge whilst we look to a wider hotel implementation and also the next stage of the pilot, which could be to evaluate cold storage monitoring in our kitchens.”
For food and beverage supply in kitchens, GUARDIAN® monitors fridge temperatures to ensure that food and drink are kept at safe storage temperature, as well ensuring that heaters, taps and all-important water boilers are functioning correctly.
PLEXUS INNOVATION PROVIDES GUARDIAN® TO HELP SAFEGUARD CARE HOMES
Plexus Innovation has forged links with Careline Lifestyles to take one of the job’s pressures off the nursing team at a time that is intense in the industry.
Ian Murray and Steve Todd, directors of Plexus Innovation, are successfully rolling out its innovative GUARDIAN® technology. They were keen, during such unprecedented times, that a care company benefitted with no initial cost implications.
GUARDIAN® is a remote, automated measurement and alert system that focuses on environmental data including temperature. Ideal in reducing the risk of legionella and ensuring temperature in water or refrigeration units is at an optimum level to protect health, Plexus Innovation’s technology comprises of a combination of hardware, with remote monitoring software.
Plexus Innovation supplied training to Careline Lifestyle staff, enabling the user to simply plug in and activate the hardware in seconds, putting the data live onto the portal managed by the experienced team at Plexus Innovation. Provided initially for free, the arrangement covers nine of Careline Lifestyle’s homes across the North East.
GUARDIAN® is now monitoring 37 measurement points, including medical fridges and ambient room temperatures, which must be kept at compliant levels. Ian said:
“GUARDIAN® is cost effective, reliable and reduces risk. We are delighted to be remotely monitoring for Careline, where lack of compliance can be of detriment to medications, dispensed to the people they care for.
“Previously these critical assets would be checked manually, which leaves room for human error when people are busy or under pressure. Using GUARDIAN® the nurses can get on with looking after the people in their care and not worry about this detail. Our system identifies compliance issues, enabling us to keep clients informed, saving time, effort and often money!
“Plexus Innovation can really help and support much of the health, social housing, care and even the hospitality industry perfectly.”
Based in the North East, Careline Lifestyle is a leading independent provider of high quality nursing and residential care specialising in acquired brain injuries, neurological, mental health needs, learning and physical disabilities for persons over 18 years of age in addition to providing nursing, residential and social care for the elderly. Kirsty Nealis, Head of Care Delivery at Careline Lifestyles said:
“With the extra pressures brought about by COVID-19 we couldn’t be more grateful for this GUARDIAN® helping hand to ensure our compliance measurements are done quickly, properly and even better, remotely.
“We are always looking at innovative new ways to improve our services which frees up staff, allowing them more time to support our residents."
“Thank you to Ian and Steve of Plexus Innovation for the free installation and remote monitoring over these first few months of a new and trying challenge!”
FORWARD THINKING HOUSING PROVIDER PROTECTS TENANTS
WITH INVESTMENT IN GUARDIAN®
believe housing, one of the largest housing associations in the North of England, has successfully implemented GUARDIAN® technology to keep their residents of 136 apartments across the region safe from the water born disease, Legionella.
Plexus Innovation, based in Durham, is the company behind this innovative technology. Their in-house team developed GUARDIAN®, a remote measurement and alert system, which they also manufacture in the UK. Managing Director, Ian Murray, said:
“It is rewarding to see believe housing leading the way by introducing our technology to their industry. Affordable housing providers are now seeing the benefits of using GUARDIAN® to ensure Legionella compliance, provide enhanced duty of care to tenants and reduce operational costs as it tracks and defines water usage and temperature profile of each outlet.”
The believe housing apartments are based in five buildings across County Durham. Compliance Officer for the organisation, Emma Jorgenson says that the system has shown them problems they wouldn’t have even known existed, which has convinced her the data reporting structure is extremely reliable. She said:
“We initially trialed GUARDIAN® on the recommendation of our water services provider, and after successful completion, we decided it was well worth investing in. The buildings we have fitted the technology in house vulnerable people over the age of 55, some who have underlying health conditions so it is our responsibility as landlords to ensure we are doing all we can to protect them.
“The technology was easy to install and the reporting system has been better than using traditional manual measurement. It has been particularly important during coronavirus lockdown, when we haven’t been able to access the properties ourselves, to have remote, digital measurement.
“It reduces the risk of human error and inconvenience to tenants, and clearly detects operational issues, reducing waste, saving money and allowing us to sort them before they are a problem.”
So far GUARDIAN® has alerted believe housing to issues including leaks, boiler problems and also that several tenants weren’t using their cold water taps. When investigated, it emerged that the cold water system had air in it, causing clouding to the cold water. The tenants didn’t trust that it was safe, even though it was fine to drink, but hadn’t reported it.
Chief Executive of believe housing, Bill Fullen, concluded:
“believe housing always puts the safety of our tenants first. Reduction of the risk of legionella is high on Emma and the compliance team’s list. The timing of installing GUARDIAN® meant we had remote and accurate readings that ensured we had uninterrupted management of water compliance throughout the coronavirus lockdown.”