Collecting, analyzing, and using data has become commonplace also in property maintenance. In Porvoo, Finland, data has been harnessed to deliver 12-percent savings in energy consumption.
Making use of data makes property maintenance easier, smoother, and more efficient.
The benefits are fourfold. Properties save energy, and thereby money; living comfort improves; and maintenance and repairs can be planned more accurately and efficiently.
Data can be harnessed for use through the Leanheat system, with which the collected data can be easily utilized. The system makes monitoring a property’s condition and maintenance operations faster and easier.
Leanheat is a tool for property owners, housing companies, property management, maintenance and even energy companies. To get the most out of the system, close cooperation between all parties is beneficial.
The Leanheat system makes property management and maintenance many times easier. The system shows immediately whether the connected property is in good condition. The visual user interface gives a clear overview of temperature, air humidity, heat distribution room, deviations, alarms, and actions taken.
Property management is usually interested in the indoor conditions of apartments: temperature and air humidity. The system helps monitoring these conditions and finding deviations, such as apartments that are too cold, hot, or humid”, says Juha Saloheimo, head of Leanheat’s product development team.
Leanheat saves maintenance resources
For property maintenance, the system makes work planning and more efficient resource allocation easier. Earlier, it was necessary to drive to the property to check that everything is all right, but now everything can be seen remotely.
It is easier and faster to find anomalies, which allows more sensible use of resources. This saves time and makes maintenance operations more efficient, says Noora Luokkala, Leanheat’s energy efficiency expert.
This has been noticed in the city of Kankaanpää, Finland, where the energy company Vatajankosken Sähkö develops its services in collaboration with external partners. One of the partners now enjoying the benefits in the form of speed and ease is the local property management company AR Isännöinti.
Remote management makes both property maintenance and monitoring the conditions of individual apartments easier. If there’s a problem, the fault is faster to locate, which shortens our reaction time, says Aki Rajahalme, owner and property manager at AR Isännöinti.
System users are supported by Leanheat’s energy efficiency team that monitors the properties and sends notifications, for example, of fault situations and actions needed. In addition, the team compiles a report for activities, savings, and the overall condition of properties at the end of the heating period.
City of Porvoo in the vanguard of data utilization
The Leanheat system does not have fixed limits for parameters like indoor temperature or air humidity, exceeding which would trigger an alarm. Instead, the system learns from data how each property behaves, and what are its “personal” limit values.
We already have data from 3,000 properties, a total of some 150,000 apartments. It helps us better understand how things work and drill down to the root causes of problems”, Saloheimo says.
There is ample evidence of benefits from data all around Finland. For example, a Leanheat system installed in the city of Porvoo a couple of years ago has already produced savings of 12 percent in energy consumption.
Johan Nyholm, CEO of the local property management company Porvoon OP-Isännöintikeskus is very satisfied.
Heating is the largest single cost factor of properties, which means that savings can be directly seen in euros. Consumption has fallen, and indoor temperature is now more even.
Porvoo appreciates new, advanced services supporting their property maintenance operations. In addition to the pilot site, Leanheat has now been installed in approximately 50 properties. The next full heating period will show the results.