Water damage is one of the biggest concerns when building a condominium, but a new solution is helping protect against it with intelligent technology and real time data.
Eddy Solutions was implemented during the construction of Edenshaw’s luxury mid-rise development, TANU, located in Port Credit, Ont. and built by PCL Construction.
“The single biggest thing that happens during construction and post construction from a risk perspective is water damage,” Mark Bryant, CIO of PCL Construction, told the Daily Commercial News.
“Eddy Solutions is an Internet of Things solution which specifically focuses on water detection prevention. It’s really all about risk reduction during the course of construction and post construction in the finished asset.”
The biggest insurance claims in a building asset, whether it’s during course of construction or when it’s finished, is water, he added.
For PCL, it’s the first finished building that’s been occupied with the Eddy technology. The system is also being installed in a number of other PCL projects across North America.
“We believe water detection prevention and suppression will be akin to fire and smoke protection and prevention in buildings,” Bryant said. “We believe its only a matter of time before the insurance industry mandates it to insure buildings.”
The project aligned all stakeholders including the mechanical and electrical design consultants from construction through to operations, protecting the property from the builder’s risk period to turnover and beyond. The benefit to constructors using the system is reduction in insurance claims and ideally premiums over time.
“The reality is in the construction industry the cost to insure during the course of construction in the last three years has doubled and a lot of it is because size and cost of the buildings are going up as time passes,” said Bryant. “If you can take that risk out of the equation using smart technology then you can reduce those issues that happen.”
Edenshaw chose to implement the system in TANU and another two buildings in its portfolio as part of their ongoing strategy for water control and leak protection. For developers, the benefit is making sure the finished asset remains protected over time.
“I think you’ll see more and more developers getting on this train simply because the risk reduction is so great,” said Bryant. “It’s not just about the water damage but all those ancillary things people don’t talk about related to what happens when you do have water damage: the rework, the insurance claims, delayed occupancy, constructor/builder reputation, developer reputation.”
Eddy’s system encompasses the use of sensors, flow monitoring and automated shutoff valves to reduce the risk of water-related issues. It’s also connected to a mobile app and property management dashboard and backed by 24/7 monitoring.
So how does it work? With an on-valve remote shut-off installed within every main water riser zone, including the incoming water main working in conjunction with the leak sensors throughout the building, the project team is alerted to shut off a valve whenever a leak is detected.
On the TANU project, PCL was able to catch a few leaks in finished suites.
“Eddy Solutions is software enabled hardware,” explained Travis Allan, CEO and president of Eddy Solutions. “We have a variety of wireless devices, some of them are plugged in, anything from metres, to controllers, to sensors and a variety of hardware that we bake intelligence into and then that software essentially controls the solution that we employ in the building. It’s all set up with machine learning as well as monitoring.”
Eddy takes a holistic view of a building, said Allan.
“From a leak detection perspective, we’re monitoring basically the entire building, even the boiler system, the heating and cooling system,” said Allan.
The average unit has six sensors in it on all points of risk including the dishwasher, washing machine, vanities and toilets. Sensors are also placed in the mechanical rooms, machine rooms, elevators and other zones in a building.
“When you think about water damage, the big piece is not only the isolation and being able to shut off, it’s getting as close to the point of risk or that leak as possible,” Allan explained.
Eddy’s system is also a feature for residents, who receive overall protection against water damage, but also individual insurance discounts.
“It’s holistic in the sense that we are considering insurance companies, we’re considering constructors, we’re considering the operational asset post turnover of units or tenants,” Allan added.
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