Why the NHS and the Housing sector need Internet of Things (IoT)
Harnessing IoT to Improve Living Conditions and Support the NHS
You must stay at home. The single most important action we can all take is to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives. However, there are homes in the UK that are not suitable to live in.
Building Research Establishment (BRE) has calculated that the annual cost of poor housing to the NHS is at least £1.4bn.
Early adopters of Internet of Things (IoT) will already know that with the right sensors you can see things that help you make life changing decisions. As IoT continues to mature, IoT adopters are getting better at extracting value.
Condensation, damp and mould busted
IoT plays a pivotal role in the data we collect can make our homes a safer and happier place to live so we can enjoy it for generations. We know that if a home isn’t suitable because it creates isolation, its cold, damp, or not fitted to cope as we grow old. It can become a hazardous place to live. For people over the age of sixty-five that live alone, in poor housing conditions are at greater risk.
We started by looking into what we knew from the data we had today in relation to condensation, damp, and mould (CDM). We extracted data on our properties between April 2019 to April 2020 to see what trends existed.
- 168 properties reported CDM related issues
- 190 repairs were carried out
- 82% of issues were related to a flat
It was from this data that we started our journey into IoT. Humidity, temperature, and air pressure sensors can give you a level of insight that means you can predict and avoid complex repairs being needed. From this data we could also look at neighbours to see the temperature of the home. This could help us by understanding whether a household is also being impacted by fuel poverty.
A Modular Approach to IoT
From the outset we wanted a modular approach to IoT that would allow us to scale up over time. We started with understanding the type of communication channels available and the ones that would provide us with the information. Having identified BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) as being easy to install indoors, we set out to see what services were available to us.
We found that there was an Azure plug and play proof of concept kit from Rigado. This kit was the enabler to us being able to begin our very own PoC. Using the Rigado device templates and data exports from Azure IoT Central allowed us to focus on creating valuable data insights for the organisation.
Improving Housing Conditions with IoT Data
After installing the sensors, it didn’t take long for us to start seeing the data coming back. The IoT sensors provided temperature, humidity, and pressure readings. Using this data, it would help us to identify if there is insulation, ventilation, or heating issues. The sensors were fitted in areas where we knew there were already problems, but it was easy to see how these sensors could show us problems before they were reported to us. This level of insight gives us a far richer way to manage our properties and ensure that the people in our communities can live independently as long as possible.
Lessons from the Proof of Concept
From the data we extracted and analysed we were able to rule out that the property needing any remedial work. We continued monitoring for the types of conditions where condensation, damp and mould would thrive. The residents would no longer need to worry about the risks and the need to inform us of changes, as we would be alerted of any changes that breached thresholds.
We also used this story as a way to teach leaders and stakeholders within the organisation about the role IoT can play in helping them solve their problems. Azure IoT central made it easy to visualise and see the data from the sensors. Rigado offered a low cost, low risk way to prove the concept which meant the organisation didn’t need any convincing that we should pilot the technology in some real world problems we have today.
The real success of the project came when we had a senior leader approach us about a problem they had (post about this project to follow). Within a few weeks a small scale deployment was mobilised and they are now actively managing the technology integrator no differently to how they manage any of their other contractors.
It was because of the PoC and the level of data insights we could show the organisation, that sparked a new way of looking at how we can solve problems with IoT.
[1]: Gov UK (February 19 2019). The cost of poor housing to the NHS — data.gov.uk
[2]: Azure IoT Central (February 8 2021). Azure IoT Central | Microsoft Azure
