The Smart Huntly Project – Smart Rural Connectivity for damp and mould

To demonstrate the effectiveness of LoRaWAN technology connected to a 5G network, to transfer passive IoT sensor generated data in a rural area with poor connectivity.

Location: Scotland - Rural North region - Aberdeenshire

What is it?

  • Huntly 5G is a £1.5m rural digital connectivity project funded by the Aberdeen City Region Deal
    • The project aims to provide investment in 5G and other wireless technology infrastructure, systems and data transfer technologies
    • Explore innovative applications that use 5G and other wireless technologies in rural places
    • Demonstrate a repeatable model for other rural communities to adopt

 More details can be found here: Smart Rural. 

What is the Problem to be solved?

This case study is aimed at Local Authorities Housing and Housing Associations

Monitoring damp and mould within Landlord properties

In the winter of 2022/2023, 5000 people died in the UK as a direct result of living in properties affected by damp and mould

In October 2025 Awaab’s Law will be implemented in the UK. Local authorities, housing associations and social landlords will be forced to investigate and rectify damp and mould in set time periods

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/awaabs-law-to-force-landlords-to-fix-dangerous-homes

One of the delivery streams of the Smart Huntly project specifically aims to demonstrate at scale, a 5G use case that can monitor the problem of damp and mould.

The barriers to development and adoption?

  • Cost

Other technologies available (NB- IOT), Hard Wired etc 
 

What is the solution to the problem?

Purpose 

The Smart Huntly Damp and Mould system currently uses 2 unobtrusive battery powered sensors connected to a LoRaWAN gateway which then transmits data via 5G to network and application servers. 

The sensors measure temperature and relative humidity

The data is processed into easy-to-read dashboards on My Devices platform which is then available to licenced users via a log in (Local Authorities/Housing Associations/Landlords). 

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Implementation

The simple installation in each house is completed within 10 minutes and does not require a specialist technician. One centrally situated LoRaWAN gateway could potentially connect an entire town, but 2 or 3 will be used for reliability and resilience

A square mile around the town of Huntly is covered with just three LoRaWAN gateways

Suppliers

The Smart Huntly project uses local engineers from Smart Rural to install sensors and operate the LoRaWAN network.

The Smart Huntly project uses My Devices platform for connecting and managing the devices

Connectivity Requirements 

The technical benefits of the Smart Huntly solution are as follows:

  • LoRaWAN sensors transmit small packets of data negating the need for big bandwidth. LoRaWAN sensors are powered by a long-life battery (10 years)
  • LoRaWAN gateways use mains power but have a battery back-up and will operate in a power outage
  • The 5G sim carries (backhauls) all the data from the sensors
  • The solution offers end to end security from device to Application layer) i

Network options and the Advantages/Disadvantages 

The main advantage of using LoRaWAN over 5G/NBIoT are as follows:

  • Operation
    • The older properties in Huntly have 2 ft thick granite walls
    • NBIoT is less effective than LoRaWAN
  • Cost 
    • NBIoT and 5G require a sim/E sim per sensor
    • Wi-Fi requires a monthly subscription and mains power (will not work in power outage)
    • Resilient
      • LoRaWAN is a mesh network and in the event of a Gateway failure, the sensors will connect to an adjacent gateway
    • Key enablers 
    • Proven Tech - There are over 300 million LoRaWAN devices installed worldwide
    • The Smart Huntly sensors can monitor temperature, humidity, light, movement, door open/close – In this project, they are only enabled for temperature and humidity
    • The sensors are readily available and low cost (£100)
    • Energy consumption
      • The sensors are powered by long-life battery (fit and forget)
      • The LoRaWAN gateways are mains and battery powered - low power (4W)
    • Safety considerations
      • LoRaWAN networks are origin authenticated, integrity protected, replay protected and encrypted end to end
    • Product integration
      • The Smart Huntly system requires minimum integration with the My Devices platform
      • LoRaWAN is designed to build solutions in a fraction of the time and traditional costs of other network architecture
      • Lora Alliance (http://lora-alliance.org/)

Commercial model (Business Case)

Financial Returns, Savings or Efficiencies

The damp and mould monitoring market is currently valued at USD 1.2 Billion worldwide. 

10% of all rental properties in the UK are affected by damp and mould

5% of private properties in the UK are affected by damp and mould

5000 people die each year due to damp and mould in properties

The regulator for social housing in England has identifies that over 160,000 social housing properties are affected. 8000 properties have been deemed so severe that they pose an immediate risk to health

 The annual NHS spend on a person is £3,000 per annum rising to £7,000 per annum for persons over 70. The cost of Primary Care in Scotland is £3.5 billion (24% of total NHS spend).

The continuous collation and analysis of data generated from the sensors inside a person’s living environment can enable early identification of damp and mould as well as monitoring the efficacy of any retrofit solutions to keep it under control.

As well as the obvious operational benefits managing properties, a damp and mould monitoring solution will deliver health and care service savings and efficiencies in the following areas:

  • Reduced call outs 
  • Reduced maintenance visits
  • Reduced property inspections
  • Reduced property repairs
  • Reduced false alerts (spikes) through ongoing data analysis 
  • Tenants able to remain in their own homes for longer
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In addition to these above, this proposed collaborative R&D project aims to demonstrate that the use of LoRaWan technology can reduce the set up and ongoing costs associated with legacy damp and mould monitoring due to reduced need for fixed wired/broadband or sim packages, offering a more financially sustainable model for both service providers and their customers.  These would be of significant benefit due to financial pressures on local authorities and housing associations.

 

Condition Required to Realise the Savings

The following conditions are required:

  • Development of an end to end solution
  • Connectivity reliability, increased rural inclusivity, and enhanced data sources and detail and, via LoRaWAN infrastructure demonstrated and evidenced
  • Connectivity cost saving demonstrated when comparing set up and ongoing costs compared to traditional telecare options

 

Timescales to Realise the Savings

The Smart Huntly programme is funded to July 2026

All use cases should be transferrable to other authorities and any infrastructure built can be adopted/taken over by third parties/local business.

 The proposed R&D project would be aligned to the living lab workstream 4A with an i

Given the scale of the Smart Rural project and DHI’s status as a national innovation centre, it is anticipated that if evaluation supports the R&D outputs and early adoption that these assets could be scaled across health and social care services at a national level and beyond.

Furthermore, if the above can be demonstrated to be reliable, cost effective and beneficial to managing damp and mould, this model could be adopted across new build properties as well as retrofitted to existing properties 

Estimated size of market

The number of local authority homes in Scotland is 323,146.

The number of housing association properties in Scotland is 300,000.

In the first instance Smart Huntly are targeting the 13,000 local authority houses in Aberdeenshire

Investment options – CAPEX v OPEX

Smart Huntly have two pricing models for consideration.

Pricing was benchmarked against traditional alarm monitoring services.

  • One off Connection charge with recurring monthly rental.
  • No Connection charge with higher monthly rental.

Procurement considerations

Smart Huntly have designed their solution so it can be delivered as a Business-to-Business model (B2B) or Business to Consumer (B2C) model

Potential B2B customers could be Local Authorities housing/Housing Associations/NHS/Existing Alarm companies

Potential B2C customers are private individuals who require an end to end service offering

Sources of funding

The Smart Huntly Damp and Mould monitoring should provide ROI on the cost of delivery of the solution within 18 months. 

Financial modelling shows that the recurring revenues of a sensor-based system will continue to fund business growth/purchase of equipment lessening the need for outside investment.

Can a business case calculator tool be provided?

Not required

It’s a very simple recurring revenue model

Upskilling Costs

Skillsets available in house - No upskilling required

 

Benefits

Financial

This collaboration expects to deliver fiscal savings from the following:

  • Reduced deaths
  • Reduced maintenance visits
  • Reduced repair costs
  • Reduced GP Visits/Hospital Admissions

Economic

This Smart Huntly project supports economic growth in Aberdeenshire through developing a progressive and market leading damp and mould solution, supporting inward investment and job creation. The project presents a potentially significant scalable opportunity particularly not only for rural Aberdeenshire, but is transferrable to other regions in the UK. An opportunity for implementation at scale exists as an alternative procurement option to the traditional legacy monitoring systems. It should be noted that existing suppliers in an effort to protect their customer base are tying their customers into longer tenure 

Efficiency

All local authorities and housing associations in the UK have a statutory obligation under the Housing Act 2004 to monitor damp and mould and prevent it returning. 

The Smart Huntly solution will deliver efficiencies in the following areas: -

  • Reduced Calls to centres
  • Housing Stock Health status
  • Reduced housing inspections
  • Reduced damp and mould surveys
  • Early detection of damp and mould

Safety

  • Detecting and preventing damp and mould levels that cause deterioration of fabric of housing stock

Health

  • Reduced death 
  • Reduced respiratory ailments

Energy or de-carbonisation

  • Low carbon technology deployed
  • Reduced inspection at home visits
  • Reduced repairs at home
  • Reduced travel to GP or hospital admissions
  • IoT sensors can provide corrective insights into household energy usage and environmental factors such as humidity

Comfort & Convenience

  • 24/7 monitoring
  • Simplicity and Familiarity
  • Trust in the reliable technology being used

Pollution

  • Less Maintenance visits
  • Less Inspection 
  • Less GP Visits
  • Less Hospital Visits

Social

TEC solutions beyond traditional monitoring can contribute to alleviating social isolation, this can be through stimulation, interaction and connectivity with others including friends and families
 

Lessons Learnt 

Note. The Smart Huntly project members are technologists not Subject Matter Experts on Primary Care. The views offered are mainly from a technology perspective but offer insight and advice to others from our findings thus far.

Previous Services/Products that Failed or were Successful

  • Within the UK there is evidence of Damp and Mould pilot schemes 
  • In the main, these pilots are reliant on being hard wired into the house or using sensor-based systems linked to broadband and subsequently network and app servers.
  • These systems will fail in a power outage.
  • Power outages are common in inclement Scottish weather (more so in rural where the service is still overhead).
  • Smart Rural chooses to use off the shelve options that are at lower price points.
  • Smart Huntly intends to deliver a simple/efficient/low-cost model that can be replicated throughout UK.

Previous experiences implementing the use cases.

Smart Rural (The company delivering Smart Huntly) have 6 years’ experience in building a LoRaWAN network in Scotland. The network is connecting farms and using sensors to collate data on agricultural and climate related use cases.

We are transferring these skills to connect homes instead of farms.

Don’t reinvent the wheel!

SmartHuntly project intends to deliver a simple model that can be replicated throughout the UK. Thus, negating the need for monies being spent on myriad pilots.

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