With 2.53 million households in the UK classified as fuel poor1, 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 programmes, 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, the company 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, commented: “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.”
1. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/829006/Annual_Fuel_Poverty_Statistics_Report_2019__2017_data_.pdf
