About Switchee
Switchee Limited designs and develops thermostats that help affordable housing residents to fight fuel poverty. Their smart home thermostat detects occupancy and learns in the background, creating an optimum heating profile without any user interaction. This results in lower energy bills by turning the heating off when nobody is at home; and provides social landlords with tools and information to make better asset management decisions.
Challenge
The landlord must ensure that the living conditions of their tenants meet a certain standard. However, monitoring and maintaining heating and boiler usage wasn’t always straightforward. To add further complications, Switchee discovered that many people in the affordable housing sector were unlikely to have Wi-Fi due to affordability issues. So, without Wi-Fi as standard in affordable housing, it’s harder to use remote heating monitoring systems.
Solution
Switchee needed to negate the need for available Wi-Fi connectivity so that each resident would always have their thermostat connected via a cellular network.T his instantly enhances the reliability of the thermostat, adopting a ‘fit and forget’ approach. Residents who opt not to engage with the technology will have no impact on the thermostat’s function and purpose.
During the early stage testing, Switchee’s development team utilised consumer-based Pay-A-You-Go (PAYG) SIMs. However, for the rollout, a more deliberate and targeted approach was required. This approach was based on various criteria, such as signal strength, secure connectivity, flexibility in network usage, and cost-effectiveness.
Working closely with Wireless Logic, a solution that met all of Switchee’s objectives was proposed, tested and ultimately commissioned. Instead of selecting one or more national Mobile Network Operators, Wireless Logic’s approach was to utilise a single non-steered roaming SIM. Working with Dutch based network, KPN, a programme was implemented to enable each installed thermostat to switch to the strongest network based upon location.
Whilst roaming can suggest high data costs, Switchee’s operational objective was to reduce data usage on a per SIM basis. With evolving tweaks, the monthly data levels per asset are below expectations. And with the use of SMS AT Commands, this further reduced data used. This solutions has been implemented in thousands of homes across the UK.
In addition to connectivity needs, security of data was also of importance. Wireless Logic’s NetPro solution, a private APN and VPN infrastructure, provided an overlay to the mobile network eco-system. Tailored tariffs were designed to aggregate usage across the entire SIM estate, therefore mitigating any possible ‘’bill shock’’. And alerts were set up to provide notifications of SIMs that may have reached agreed thresholds or have any unusual usage patterns.
The solution, delivered to Switchee on an OPEX model, minimalised expenditure to the landlords as Switchee monitored usage and performance. This was done in real time, giving a complete view of SIM activity over the Wireless Logic control platform, SIMPro.
Outcome
To date, a saving of 15% has been made on fuel, but Switchee takes the data learning further. For vulnerable residents, the thermostat can report on potential fuel poverty or overheating through abnormally low or elevated temperatures. Humidity readings can help determine the risk of mould growth, helping the landlord intervene before the issue becomes problematic. By analysing the data collected via sensors, landlords can work with all of the residents to create a healthier environment, with a reduction of mould, fungal infections and a better approach to cost-effective heating schedules without the need for costly inspections.
Data is reported via Switchee’s intuitive dashboard, which models the real-time condition of each property, enabling landlords to have full visibility of heating performance across all of their housing stock.
For asset managers, having access to unparalleled data provides a unique insight. This insight helps them anticipate and prevent damage resulting from a building’s condition
If you’re interested in learning more about our SIM Connectivity services, more information can be found here. Alternatively, please get in touch with us directly.
The successful deployment and ongoing performance of the Switchee is totally dependent upon our ability to communicate securely, with resilience and in a cost-effective way. The connectivity journey with counsel from Wireless Logic has taken us on a big learning curve to achieve the best solution. The roaming solution gives us the optimal provisioning strategy with a ‘one SIM fits all’ that reduces our commissioning time and provides stability in our connectivity. We are pleased with the end-to-end solution that Wireless Logic has developed – Integrating secure infrastructure as part of the total package together with a competitive roaming solution enables us to focus on other key areas of our service delivery, firm in the knowledge that safe and resilient connectivity is in place, regardless of location. As our growth gathers pace, we look forward to developing further solutions with the Wireless Logic team.