SmartLINK Gateway and HomeLINK Dashboard Save Lives in Tiverton

Mid Devon Council has undertaken a project to install Aico’s Ei1000G SmartLINK Gateway and connected home technologies into all tower blocks within their housing stock to improve resident safety.

The Council aim to offer housing with more choice by developing new homes and improving existing homes and communities. There is a particular focus on affordable and social rent properties alongside a strong commitment to providing low-carbon, accessible and adaptable homes. This means that they can support their most vulnerable residents to access and maintain quality housing, which meets their needs, while helping their hamlets, villages, and towns to be sustainable in the longer term and contribute to the district’s prosperity and wellbeing.

Aico has a long-standing relationship with Mid Devon Council, and the housing provider was keen to utilise Aico’s market leading technology for  domestic Fire and Carbon Monoxide (CO) protection and Internet of Things (IoT) platform – already a choice for many within the social housing sector.

Regional Specification Manager for the South West, Steve Bulley, is an integral part of the relationship. A colleague of Mid Devon Council comments, “We appreciate our strong working relationship with Steve – he has a vast knowledge of this technology and always provides first class support.”

Mid Devon Council quickly recognised the benefits of Aico’s connected home life safety solution, as they received an alert of high levels of CO within a property, via the SmartLINK Gateway and HomeLINK Dashboard. This alert lead to the quick identification of a faulty cooker and enabled the Council to ensure maximum safety for residents.

In this scenario, the Gateway minimised the risk of the CO alarm event being mistaken as a false activation, which may have resulted in serious illness or fatal outcomes to the resident.

The SmartLINK Gateway and associated HomeLINK Dashboard provide Mid Devon Council with real-time alerts of CO levels within their connected properties, resulting in a fast response, as seen with this property.

The alert provided by the SmartLINK Gateway ensured a prompt response by the Council, who proceeded to contact the residents to ensure their safety. An out of hours Electrician attended the property, whilst the Council advised the residents on the necessary safety measures, for example; turning off the gas, ventilation, and evacuating the property.

Throughout the incident, Mike Lowman, Repairs and Adaption Supervisor at Mid Devon Council was able to monitor the CO levels within the property via the HomeLINK Dashboard in real-time. The insights demonstrated that the medium levels of CO reduced to a low level once the safety measures were implemented. The CO eventually became undetectable, indicating that it was safe for the residents to re-enter the property.

A faulty cooker was identified as the cause of the Carbon Monoxide, resulting in the appliance being condemned. Residents were warned not to use the appliance and advised on the symptoms for CO poisoning.

Mike Lowman, Repairs and Adaption Supervisor comments, “So, all in all, a fantastic result, the fact that this private flat had no Carbon Monoxide alarm prior to the installation of the new system just shows what a success it can be, as they would have surely suffered serious health problems if not worse if the alarm wasn’t present and a notification wasn’t sent via the Aico SmartLINK Gateway.”

Steve Bulley, adds, “I work very closely with Mid Devon Council, and they are always looking to offer the best experience for their tenants and the Aico SmartLINK Gateway is very much an extension of that philosophy. It’s fantastic to hear that by deploying this technology they saved many people from fatal injuries.”

The SmartLINK Gateway has demonstrated important and positive outcomes in the Council’s properties. In the future, Mid Devon Council will be updating their procedures to further improve their response times to Fire and CO related to incidents and resident safety. Alerts from the SmartLINK Gateway will notify a dedicated phone team during working hours and to a call centre when out of hours. The out of hours team will follow the scripts in place for both Fire and CO activations to effectively assist residents in the event of an emergency.

Find out more about Aico’s connected home solution.