How safe is your multi-family home? Water leaks in multi-family buildings can result in extensive damage, necessitating expensive repairs and posing potential safety risks to residents. By utilizing water leak, ambient, and motion sensors, owners of buildings can be careful in preventing such incidents early on.
Water leaks may cause damage to your multi-family property, involving the possibility of mold growth and health risks to those living in the home. Multi-family homeowners can avoid significant water damage by properly detecting and stopping leaks with water leak sensors, which would alert them ahead of time.
Using temperature and humidity sensors would help reduce the risk of air pollution. Motion sensors would help improve the safety of multi-family homes by identifying suspicious activity, like theft, vandalism, and other threats.
Using these sensors, owners can protect physical assets and occupants from harm, reducing the costs for repairs and from what would be considered an undetected issue if you don't purchase these sensors. In this article, we will examine how these sensors work and what types of problems they will be solving.
Water Leak Sensors
The problem that Water Leak Sensors Solve
Water leak sensors can prevent water damage from occurring and help keep your property safe both physically and financially. If you don’t have a sensor, water damage can destroy drywall, flooring, carpet, furniture, and any of your tenants’ personal belongings. Anytime there is exposure to water, it may cause structural damage and even collapse.
Any electronic devices and equipment that are on the floor such as chargers, and computers are also in danger, which could have the chance of losing all data. While the responsibility of damage to their personal belongings mostly falls to the tenants and their renter's insurance, in most cases damages to the rental property will have to be covered by the owner and their insurance.
Water damage restoration costs for multi-family buildings can be staggering, especially with the costs of materials, and labor, and in extreme cases where habitability is compromised, withheld rent can add up.
On average, the cost to repair water damage for multi-family houses is $3,300 but it is certainly not uncommon for it to reach over $10,000. Undetected water leaks also drive up your utility/water bill, which would leave you in question when your bill has skyrocketed.
By not installing a water leak sensor, you are also putting any tenants in the building at risk which is bad news for everyone. Water leaks cause mold, contamination, and electrical hazards that if not properly dealt with quickly can put people’s health at risk and may make you liable for injuries or illness.
How Water Leak Sensors Keep Your Multi-Family Property Safe
Water leak sensors are devices that work to detect leaks and can alert you as soon as they come in contact with water. The Perceptive Things’® wireless alert system sends a signal straight to your phone in the form of emails, texts, or even calls. They can be placed strategically to monitor areas at high risk of leaks and save you money when it comes to structural damage.
How many fixtures are in your building? How often are you able to check on them? Your tenants might not recognize or report a leak. Reduce the chance of a simple leaky fixture costing you thousands of dollars and catch it early! Perceptive Things® also has multiple variations of leak sensors so you can choose one that suits your unique needs.
Perceptive Things® offers 4 types of Water leak sensors, Droplet Solo™ (top left), Droplet Duo™(top right), Droplet Pro™ (bottom left), and Droplet Zone™ (Bottom right)
Smart building sensors like this water leak sensor are valuable tools for multi-family property owners. By being proactive and detecting leaks early, you can save on water damage repair costs and maintain a safe environment for your tenants.
Humidity & Temperature Sensors
Problems that Humidity & Temperature Sensors Solve
They can solve humidity problems before any extensive damage can be done. Humidity leads to mold and other harmful VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) so preventing it in the first place would be beneficial before it starts to cause health risks.
Chemical reactions and humidity over time will weaken some parts of the building materials used in your multi-family home if not taken seriously, which would lead to an expensive repair. Temperature variations can affect occupants' health, and equipment if not dealt with.
How Humidity & Temperature Sensors Keep Your Multi-Family Property Safe
These sensors can pick up on water leaks or significant changes in humidity before too much damage is done.
Humidity Sensors can detect abnormal humidity levels, or when they get beyond a set point. Humidity being too high can lead to infrastructure damage because of the moisture and chemical reactions.
Temperature Sensors monitor the temperature of a building allowing for the optimization of energy and thereby reducing costs. These sensors track the temperature on the surfaces of hot objects such as pipes to avoid overheating by alerting the property owner of extreme heat and smoke, so fires are quickly identified.
Best of all, you are no longer reliant on audible alarms since a notification will be sent to your phone in real time.
Perceptive Things® offers 5 ambient sensors. Two variations of the Mercury™ which are used for temperature and humidity. With it, you can receive alerts once the humidity or temperature in a room reaches a set threshold.
Two variations of the Vapor™ are available, offering smoke and heat detection. They are smarter than a conventional smoke detector and provide real-time alerts straight to your phone.
And finally, the Vox™ monitors noise levels. The sensor logs the sound level every ten minutes. When the noise level gets too high you will receive a notification.
Motion Sensors:
Problems that Motion Sensors Solve
Motion sensors prevent thefts by notifying building owners when a break-in occurs. A break-in occurs every 26 seconds in the USA. Insurance rises due to break-ins as companies can increase the cost of their coverage if no risk mitigation technology is installed.
People move fire extinguishers out of their designated location, posing a safety risk. There are regulations on some equipment that require property owners to know their location. The sensors provide data on whether tenants have moved them. HVAC systems begin to deteriorate if not properly maintained
How Motion Sensors Keep Your Multi-Family Property Safe
Motion sensors can be used as trackers. They are smart building sensors that keep track of objects usually with GPS. They can be used on doors, garages, or windows to alert you when they are opened adding security for tenants.
Motion sensors can track items (like fire extinguishers) that they are attached to and alert the owner when they are moved out of the designated area or are vibrating for a long period. Asset Tagging of items like power tools, vehicles, and HVAC systems is useful. With all the extra people in a multi-family building, it’s important to keep tabs on what you own.
Perceptive Things® offers two Motion Sensors:
The Breeze™ is a two-piece sensor used on doors and windows. A magnet attaches to one side and the sensor to the other. Strong double-sided adhesive strips hold the sensor and magnet securely.
The Motiv™ used for tracking assets and equipment. It is a one-piece sensor that detects movement. It can attach to anything you want to secure. Then, if someone moves the item the sensor will notify you.
Final Thoughts on Smart Building Sensors’ Role in Keeping Your Multi-Family Property Safe
Combining water leaks, humidity, temperature, and motion sensors is crucial for protecting the safety and security of multi-family homes. By taking measures to detect and deal with possible risks like water leaks, air pollution, or unwanted access, owners can effectively reduce damages to the infrastructure of their buildings and protect the residents from possible harm.
Utilizing smart building sensors in your multi-family property improves safety and saves money over time by avoiding costly repairs and higher utility bills that are caused by unnoticed incidents.
Do you ever wonder about half of the things that go undetected? What are other measures you’ve taken to protect your multi-family property and its tenants?
Comments