m0ve Digital Twins Project
We are currently in the early stages of rolling out a digital twins project across our bills inclusive properties. The purpose of this project is to enable us to provide tailored advice to our tenants that is specific to their property rather than general advice that is sometimes not relevant to their particular situation.
What are digital twins?
Digital twins are virtual representations of a physical object. In the sense that we will be using them they are, at their core, 3D models of your property. You may have already seen these used for marketing properties, allowing you to take a virtual walk around a property online, jumping from space to space and having a 360° viewpoint. We will be using the same technology, but rather than primarily for marketing purposes we will be using the models to enable the tenants of each property to explore their property with information that will be useful to help them use the house efficiently and keep an eye on their consumption.
Digital twins are more commonplace in the commercial property sector where they are used to do everything from earthquake stress testing to controlling the entire facilities management of a building, which is the area we will be adapting. The idea is if you have many different brands and models of tech that are all controlled with their own software or apps, how do you bring this together so that not only is it easier to use but provides useful information that is in context. By incorporating sensors and controls on to a digital twin of the property, a user can see exactly what they’re interacting with and where it is in the building and what impact it is having in the local area, in real time.
We’re adapting the technology to experiment in how it could be useful in the residential private rented sector. Ultimately, we are trying to create the only resource that tenants will have to interact with when they need information on their property.
What’s the purpose?
The main purpose is to give our bills inclusive tenants the best chance of staying within usage caps and avoid wasting energy. As we are aware this is the first time many of our tenants have been living by themselves, we often find ourselves having to provide phone support or visiting properties to show tenants how to use their heating. A myriad of different heating and control systems, with some being unclear or confusing at first glance, means that there is always the risk that tenants who don’t ask for help are at a higher risk of over, or under, heating their homes. Being unable to properly configure controls also means that some tenants just use the on-off controls which is almost always less efficient than a properly programmed system.
We have always struggled with how to convey this information. Instruction manuals, posters, leaflets etc. that we have left in properties go missing or get damaged to the point of illegibility all too quickly, or elements of the heating system get replaced/upgraded so that any material previously supplied is no longer useful.
With digital twins of our properties, we can update this information as it happens so that any new information is immediately conveyed to the tenant in a format that we can ensure will always be available whenever our tenants have a desire to use it.
What information will be provided?
At first, we’ll be populating the twins with basic information on how to use their specific heating system in the form of online manuals, videos, or our own guides. We’ll also be providing useful annotations around the property with energy saving tips as well as other information related to how to use the property that aren’t necessarily to do with energy, such as how to reset a tripped fuse and to identify the offending electrical item.
Our next step is to then start providing real time and historic energy usage statistics from smart meters to make it easier for tenants to see the times where consumption was high to help identify any inefficiencies. We’re still in the process of building this platform but hope to have it rolled out in time for our new tenants in the summer.
This is a multi-year project and the possibilities as the technology grows are endless. It’s possible that as smart home technology evolves that having a digital twin will become invaluable to occupants and our property managers. Integrating data from sensors around the house could enable us to track information like relative humidity for instance. This means we can identify areas where the conditions for black spot mould are being met but take preventative action before it can develop. Integrating smart home tech can allow each tenant to have the granularity to control the heating and lighting in their bedroom to their individual preferences.
FAQs
Who will have access to the models?
Only tenants who have an active tenancy at the property, MCR/LIV Move employees and if requested, your landlord. Access will be password protected and changed at the end of each tenancy.
Will the 3d models also be used for marketing?
As with most property marketing, a property looks best when it is decluttered, carefully shot and staged/lighted appropriately. Due to the number of properties we have to initially capture, it’s not possible for us to meet those requirements this year or expect our tenants to do so for us. Our plan is to recapture any properties when they next become empty for use in marketing. If we can capture a property when it is completely empty this year, it is likely we will use this for marketing in the future. Properties we capture when the tenants are in occupancy will just be used for digital twin purposes until we are able to recapture it when vacant. If for any reason we want to use scans with personal possessions for marketing or sharing with anyone not listed above, we will seek permission first from the tenants.
Will my belongings be on show to my housemates/future tenants?
The focus of the digital twins will be the systems that make up your house rather than any aesthetic considerations. We will also assume that your housemates will in all likeliness have seen your personal possessions already and that anything you didn’t want immortalised on camera would have been hidden before our camera operators arrive. However, if you want to make a request for us to blur out any/all your possessions in a particular room then we will oblige. This will automatically be done for any houseshares. If we are unable to capture a new scan when the property is vacant, and we must reuse a scan with previous tenants’ possessions, then we will blur these out throughout the model before making it available.
Can I be at home when the property is being scanned?
Yes. We will try to minimise any disruption to you so feel free to go about your day as normal. You’re welcome to stay in the room while it’s being scanned, we just ask you not to move around for the 10 seconds each scan takes as it can affect the camera recognising where it is being placed next. Our camera operators will leave the room while each scan is taking place. Each room will typically need 2-5 scans depending on size and layout. If you would rather not be home and want to propose a different date to the one we suggest, just let us know by replying to the email. Any individuals in scans we be blurred by default in the final model.
