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Our work

Fortum — for smarter heating

The Fortum SmartLiving heating optimization service is based on apartment-specific measurements and a self-directed heating control system powered by artificial intelligence.

Fortum wants to serve residents and those responsible for the value and maintenance of the property as well as possible. The aim of the service is to improve living comfort and energy efficiency in an environmentally friendly way. At the same time, residents were wanted to be able to influence the housing company’s decisions on heating.

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The challenge

Nowadays, people spend up to 90 percent of their time indoors, and indoor air quality and temperature play an important role in health. In housing companies, adjusting apartment temperature individually is difficult. Varying weather conditions, the different seasons and residents’ own preferences affect how temperature should be adjusted.

It is also important for maintaining the value of the property that the humidity in apartments is measured regularly. Those responsible for the condition of the building must keep up to date on the state of the property and deal with problems quickly. Expenses are also a challenge, as heating costs are usually the biggest cost item for housing companies.

The necessary information on the temperature and humidity of apartments couldn’t be obtained without significant costs. Conventionally, the heating of apartments is only controlled according to the outdoor temperature, as the system cannot determine the correct indoor temperatures of the apartments. This results in extra heating costs, in addition to which residents are not satisfied with uneven temperatures.

The solution

The basis of the implementation is continuous measurement of the temperature and humidity of apartments using sensors. The fully automatic and self-learning system developed by Leanheat optimizes heating of properties in real time and monitors indoor air humidity.

Fortum also wanted to involve residents in the optimization of heating, resulting in the Fortum SmartLiving heating optimization service for housing companies.

The service also includes an app through which housing company representatives and residents can monitor the apartment temperature and humidity by smartphone or computer. Residents can use the app to provide feedback on apartment heating. In addition to sensors and weather data, Leanheat’s system also draws on feedback from residents to control heating. Futurice was responsible for conceptualizing the service together with Fortum’s team, and for the design and technical implementation of the app.

To ensure that potential problems are effectively resolved in good time, the housing company representatives can monitor the status of properties via the reporting system. Based on the data collected for the housing company, the system proposes measures to increase the energy efficiency of the property and to ensure that the property retains its value. The service soon pays for itself in living comfort and saving energy and maintenance costs.

Loihde Factor implemented a solution that transmits and harmonizes data generated by sensors from different sources, which is used and presented in user interfaces used by residents and housing companies, for example. Nordkapp was involved in developing the customer’s service path and the visualization and functionality of new user interfaces.

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