The University of Exeter has partnered with Aico, Coastline Housing and Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust (HACT) to publish a guide and toolkit for housing providers to assess and realise the social value of IoT sensors in their tenants’ homes.
Entitled ‘Sensor systems for healthier social housing – A guide to understanding & evaluating the social value of indoor environment sensor systems’, the guide and toolkit aim to support informed decision-making, establishing connections between housing and health, understanding the social value of using sensor systems, a social return on investment (SROI) forecast, templates and case studies.
The toolkits have been developed in collaboration with housing providers already using IoT sensors, such as Poplar HARCA and its implementation of Aico’s environmental sensors and gateways for monitoring damp and mould, ventilation, fuel poverty and indoor air quality.
The University of Exeter’s working logic model was informed by Aico’s expertise to map the inputs, such as humidity levels, and HACT’s ‘social value insight’ tool to map the outcomes, such as reduced condensation. The university’s logic model identifies what changes need to be made early in order to improve an indoor environment, such as opening windows or improving the use of heating to reduce condensation and the risk of mould.
Emma Bland, associate professor in environment, health and wellbeing, University of Exeter Medical School, said, “Sensor technology has the potential to deliver organisational benefits in social housing but there is a lack of understanding about the broader social value gained from such systems and best practices for their adoption. Furthermore, this project builds on many years of research, including the groundbreaking Smartline project which focused on more than 200 social households over six years.”
