What was the project?

Morgan Sindall Property Services launched an innovative technology platform called goldeni, which uses machine learning to provide councils and local housing authorities and residents with real-time, actionable insights to help them ensure their properties are healthy, legally compliant and more energy-efficient. Morgan Sindall Property Services are the first property maintenance provider to develop an in-house platform that can consolidate and interpret information from a number of commercially available ‘Internet of Things’ sensors in real-time. It provides residents and clients with clear, practical recommendations. The platform is being used by Basildon Borough Council.

What was innovative about the service provided?

goldeni is an innovative software platform which uses machine learning to provide social housing landlords and tenants with real-time, actionable insights to help them ensure their properties are healthy, legally compliant and more energy-efficient. Using discreet interconnected sensors positioned throughout a home, the platform collects data on the internal environmental conditions in a property, including temperature, air pressure, light levels, humidity and carbon dioxide. goldeni also monitors heating systems, detects for water leaks and monitors electricity and gas consumption. Morgan Sindall is the first property maintenance provider to develop an in-house platform that can consolidate and interpret information from a number of commercially available ‘Internet of Things’ sensors in real-time. One of the most important things about goldeni is that it collects data from all these sensors and then converts it into actionable insights to allow the property services team to make informed decisions about the properties' state. By providing valuable insights into building health remotely, goldeni alerts engineers and managers to any issues in real-time. This means that operational problems, such as boiler faults, can be rectified before they negatively impact the resident. The goldeni platform has been developed by data scientists working for Morgan Sindall Property Services, the property maintenance division of the Morgan Sindall Group, which currently looks after 200,000 homes for social landlords across the UK.

What are the measurable benefits to the client, the contractor, the resident and the neighbourhood?

Social housing client, Basildon Borough Council, has been using goldeni to monitor the internal air quality as well as temperature and humidity levels in a number of homes. This allows Morgan Sindall to assess whether the conditions are likely to cause damp and mould issues and also, if there is a high concentration of CO₂ levels, that there is lack of ventilation in the home. Its property services team receive the information and schedule in the works. Left unnoticed this would result in the tenants fining the landlord up to £10,000 per property. Its clients are also using goldeni's leak detection system to alert instantly in the event of any water leaks inside and outside of the property. Enabling the contractor to fix the problem before it causes costly damage. The scale of the problem that leaks pose to properties is made clear through recognising that the Association of British Insurers (ABI) reports that insurers pay out £1.8 million to escaped water damage in domestic properties every day. Its smart boiler project with clients is providing insights into internal conditions in the home.

Alongside gas and electricity metering data, Morgan Sindall can help its clients identify inefficient homes (high energy consumption) or those in fuel poverty. Identifying which residents need help by improving the building fabric to maintain heat in the home, and providing energy efficient solutions to reduce the running costs.

For residents, goldeni provides improved living conditions ensuring that the home environment is comfortable, safe and complies with health legislation. By monitoring heating systems, any faults immediately can be identified and teams sent to site to fix even before the tenant is aware they have no heating or hot water. By tracking which homes are using central heating too often or too little, goldeni can also help users identify properties that are in fuel poverty or requiring additional insulation.

What are the financial costs and measurable cashable benefits over a defined time period?

Through using goldeni to monitor the internal air quality as well as temperature and humidity levels in a number of homes, the contractor can assess whether the conditions are likely to cause damp and mould issues and also, if there is a high concentration of CO₂ levels, that there is lack of ventilation in the home. Its property services team receive the information and schedule in the works, which left unnoticed would result in the tenants fining the landlord up to £10,000 per property. The Council is also using goldeni's leak detection system to alert instantly any water leaks inside and outside of the property, which enables the contractor to fix the problem before it causes costly damage. Such preventive and proactive approach saves the Council from costly fines of up to £10,000/home and the costs of making good water damage as a result of leaks (insurers pay out £1.8 million/day).

Morgan Sindall’s smart boiler project is providing insights into internal conditions in the home. Alongside gas and electricity metering data, it can help its clients identify inefficient homes (high energy consumption) or those in fuel poverty. Identifying which residents need help by improving the building fabric to maintain heat in the home, and providing energy efficient solutions to reduce the running costs. By monitoring heating systems, any faults immediately identified and teams are sent to site to fix even before the tenant is aware they have no heating or hot water. By tracking which homes are using central heating too often or too little, goldeni can also help the Council identify properties in fuel poverty or that require additional insulation. For residents, goldeni provides improved living conditions ensuring that the home environment is comfortable, safe and complies with health legislation.

One of the most important things about goldeni is that it collects data from all these sensors and converting them into actionable insights, allows the property services team to make informed decisions about the property’s state. Through monitoring building health remotely, goldeni alerts engineers and managers to any issues in real-time so that operational problems, such as boiler faults, can be rectified before they negatively impact the resident.

How relevant is this as an example that might be followed by other organisations?

Such a software platform could be used by social landlords to help them save over £550m per year by helping identify potential maintenance issues before they occur and remedy leaks before they escalate. Inside Housing reported that, in 2019/20, Housing Associations in England spent a combined £5.51bn on repairs and maintenance. Instead of planned (once every 3-months) or reactive (when something breaks) maintenance, goldeni provides with insights into the internal conditions of the home as well as the boiler operation. When conditions deviate from the desired, the team are alerted to the change and visit site to remedy before it causes costly damage for the landlord and tenant. This preventive action reduces operational issues and prolongs the lifespan of the asset. The platform also has a crucial role to play in the path to net zero. goldeni provides practical recommendations in real-time for how to make properties more energy efficient, from using heating more effectively throughout the day, to suggestions on the best time to run energy-hungry appliances or improve insulation.

Description

The launch of goldeni, Morgan Sindall Property Services’ first technological innovation for the sector, represented an important milestone not just for Morgan Sindall but also for Social Housing as a whole. By giving warnings of potential issues within homes even before they occur, it can help those living in social housing have healthier, safer, more energy efficient homes, as well as saving Social Housing providers costs. While Morgan Sindall is initially focusing on social housing, its ability to provide an instant overview of a building’s health in real time means that goldeni would just be as useful for commercial and private residential property owners as well.

The technology has been built by a team of data scientists both internal and external to the business. Other organizations could take the same approach and investment to be able to replicate this alongside the potential for this to be adopted by the industry. As more IoT sensors and devices come to market, these can be adopted into the goldeni suite of products allowing Morgan Sindall to monitor and alert on more conditions inside and outside the home. Extending to building fabric and subsidence alerts, as well as, extending its use by those who design, plan and build properties. Data throughout the whole construction phase to residents moving in can be under goldeni’s monitoring and alert functionality.

For existing building stock, goldeni is easily retrofitted. As we move towards smart city revolution, goldeni’s IoT enabled homes can benefit from smart city services and solutions such as off-grid or district heating supply. As the sector learns more about its homes and how residents operate and run their homes, it can help to influence them to make decisions based on economic gains as well as improving their health and well-being. Morgan Sindall can also work with residents to improve the environmental impact of their homes and the impact on neighbouring residents and local community. By making homes into smart homes, it is helping its clients move towards net zero. Decarbonizing the residential sector one home at a time. As goldeni embraces latest advancements in IoT technologies, Morgan Sindall can also ensure that these goldeni enabled smart homes can transition offgrid as part of a wider social and economic smart city development.