Do you have a NEAT housing idea?
Halton Housing are calling for companies with Novel Environmental Assessment Technology (NEAT) to participate in their upcoming Challenge event.
The deadline for applications is Monday 26th March at 4pm.
Challenge background
With 7,500 homes in the Runcorn and Widnes area in the North West of England, Halton Housing are an innovative and trail-blazing housing trust with a firm commitment to investment in technology – a recognised key to reduced overhead costs and optimum customer service.
Other than occasional manual inspections, Halton Housing have no ongoing visibility of the current state of housing stock. Various consumer smart home kits have been trialled with varied results and the Trust is now seeking a scalable solution to the challenge of remote, predictive monitoring of environmental issues, with a particular emphasis on damp, mould and other humidity/ temperature related issues.
This will allow for pre-emptive maintenance works to avoid damage to properties and any impact on the health and wellbeing of residents.
The Challenge
Halton Housing are calling for solutions which have the ability to predict environmental issues before they arise and move from reactive to pre-emptive maintenance of housing stock.
Who should apply?
Companies with technologies that can help to address the above challenge.
Rules of Engagement
Proposed technology should be capable of immediate deployment within an identified trial base of 50 houses.
Successful applicants will be invited to interview in closed session with Halton Housing and Sensor City experts and must be prepared to present non-confidential information only.
Pitches should cover:
- What the technology is
- Where is has been applied previously
- Evidence of capability to implement mass roll-out
High Level Technology Requirements
> In-situ environmental sensors in houses feeding back to an aggregated point in the cloud that runs over a low cost, low impact infrastructure.
> It is expected that suitable technology will operate over a LoRa network and access to this will be provided for non-commercial trial purposes.
> Early identification of when a property is starting to suffer from moisture / humidity related issues and provision of a live health report for homes, so that the Trust can stage an intervention with a pre-emptive repair or advise customers on behaviour changes.
> Ability to interface this information with the Trust’s existing CRM via an automated workflow.
> Capable of scalable roll out over a large amount of stock.
Key dates
- Tuesday 20th March (11am–12pm) = Pre-bookable, 10 minute Q&A phone sessions with problem statement owners. (Please specify if you would like to take up this opportunity when registering and provide a phone number for us to call you on. Calls available on a first come, first serve basis).
- Monday 26th March (4pm) = Deadline for challenge response applications the Eventbrite registration page.
- Tuesday 27th March = Successful applicants will be notified if they have been selected to pitch their proposed solutions to an expert panel.
- Monday 9th April = Shortlisted applicants will pitch to the Halton Housing panel in a closed session at Sensor City.
Why apply?
All successful applicants will receive feedback and Halton Housing aims to take applicants successful at the pitch stage forward to a Proof of Concept stage, with the aim of putting a prototype into field trials with a base of 50 identified homes by the end of April.
Proof of Concept deployment is flexible depending on requirement, but would be a partnership likely to be between 8 and 12 weeks in duration.
Halton Housing and Sensor City aim to follow up pilot work with a workshop event for other housing associations to highlight the benefits of the work undertaken, thereby facilitating market access for suitable technologies.