Health and Wellbeing

M-Four worked with client ng homes to deliver a series of health and wellbeing assessments and data monitoring services to identify the direct impact of heat consumption on fuel poverty.

Objective

In their Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP), ng homes wanted to monitor their building’s temperature and humidity. As a result of this, they would be able to carry out before and after appraisals of heating consumption and fuel poverty. To gather suitable data, six hundred temperature and humidity sensors were installed in two hundred and fifty homes.

Health and wellbeing assessments to improve energy efficiency and alleviate fuel poverty

Data Assessments

M-Four’s data scientists assessed the data from these devices to develop profiles of heat consumption across ng homes’ properties. We found a reverse heat profile in 63% of the properties with sensors installed, meaning homes were being heated during the silent hours, with a noticeable drop off when the heating (economy 7) was turned off. As a result, tenants were paying twice to heat their homes as heat was not being stored. Secondary heating systems were used later in the day, to top up the heating.

Data scientists testing data from the sensors to identify heat consumption data from the buildings

Deliverables

The temperature and humidity sensors captured instances when this increased to find when a secondary heating source was being used. This monitoring process saw spikes in humidity and alerted to heating sources that use Calor gas bottles. In these cases, the association were able to quickly intervene and M-Four provided health and wellbeing assessments which identified over 68% of those surveyed reported being in fuel poverty. Results were shared with ng homes who made data driven decisions to reduce fuel poverty and increase building safety.

Three V2 LoRaWAN Gateways were installed in the buildings to connect IoT devices to ng homes’ network, handle data flow, and to offer custom configuration.

Temperature and humidity sensors used to identify spikes in humidity to alert use of Calor gas bottles

Outcome

M-Four reported their findings to ng homes so they could undertake necessary works to improve energy efficiency and heat conservation. We provided our asset management and analytics services for this next stage of our contract with the client.