Birmingham tech firm collaborates with Carillion on legionella monitoring
A BIRMINGHAM technology company is collaborating with infrastructure and facilities management giant, Carillion on a pilot project looking to reduce the risk of legionella breaking out in future buildings.
SPICA Technologies, based at Innovation Birmingham Campus, has rolled out a successful pilot Internet of Things (IoT) project for Remote Legionella Monitoring.
SPICA is an IoT systems integrator that specialises in sensor/device design, embedded software development, IoT network and integrations and cloud platforms. The company uses a combination of technical assets, hardware and software components and IoT integration expertise to help businesses capitalise on IoT opportunities.
SPICA devicepoint for Healthy Water replaces traditional manual techniques with connected devices; taking real-time data readings on pipe temperature which feeds into the devicepoint dashboard for easy remote access.
The project is a first-of-a-kind IoT solution and is intended to offer cost savings, improved accuracy on existing regulatory requirements, and a pro-active approach to tackling this widespread health risk.
Carillion currently provide mandatory Legionella monitoring across its facilities management contracts to thousands of client sites across the UK. The new project was piloted at eight sites including retail premises and large corporate buildings over the last two months and will be introduced to customers from Q3 2016 when it is rolled out across building society branches in Central London.
Tim Streather, Sales and Marketing Director for SPICA, said: “The benefits of IoT powered systems such as this are numerous in many commercial, residential and public sector environments, as we move towards a future of Smart Cities. SPICA are excited to be working alongside Carillion, on their journey to disrupt and improve upon traditional business models within the FM sector.”
Results showed that manually intensive legionella monitoring could be replaced with remote monitoring through IoT connected devices, delivering improved assurance regarding the health of water supplies to clients. In addition, the project promotes cost savings to both clients and end users, who both benefit from safe water supplies.
Euan Burns, Chief Engineer at Carillion’s Engineering Centre of Excellence, said: “The pilot study was a great success, and we are hoping to roll this innovation out across all of our contracts this autumn, delivering significant benefits to our clients.
“Our partnerships with innovative SME’s like SPICA technologies allow us to work together to devise and deliver leading solutions for our clients and we look forward to our continued relationship in the future.”
SPICA is one of 18 early stage tech companies receiving support from Innovation Birmingham’s Entrepreneurs for the Future (e4f) Inspire programme.
