Smart technology: helping to put the care into care homes

For buildings in general, recent years have seen an ever-increasing focus on making their environments more people-centric, recognising the needs of users and introducing processes to assist with those needs. A central contributor to this has been automation, with building management systems (BMS) providing increased comfort and greater efficiencies through monitoring and controlling functions such as lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning and security.

The term 'smart building' is regularly used to describe the adoption of technology to create a safe and comfortable environment for building occupants. This is no longer an approach confined to only the most prestigious of buildings in major cities using the latest IoT technologies with all the building services working together. In truth, any building can be smart, irrespective of its size. So, bearing that in mind, it is easy to see why care homes are increasingly adopting a smart approach, recognising the benefits that building automation can bring to residents, as well as providing a means for cost savings to be realised by care home owners through improved energy efficiencies.

When you consider the fundamental role of a care home, it is pretty obvious why a BMS approach is particularly pertinent. The clue is in the name: a care home's basic requirement is to provide care for its residents, providing support for their health and wellbeing. The control that a BMS can provide in creating an environment conducive to achieving that is therefore more important than in many other buildings. Research suggests that the majority of people spend some 90 per cent of their time indoors. In care homes, it is much higher — often 100 per cent — so the indoor environment becomes even more of a focus. Given that many residents have underlying health conditions that make them more vulnerable to environmental factors, the fact that pollution is typically 2-5 times higher in indoor spaces takes on even greater significance. Yet it is often overlooked. A significant improvement in indoor air quality (IAQ) is one of the main benefits that a BMS can bring, helping to maintain residents' overall health, comfort and quality of life.