The Data-Driven Solution to Frozen Pipe Emergencies

Every winter in northern regions, at least one building in a portfolio will have an emergency caused by frozen pipes. These events lead to unplanned expenses and tenant disruption. Unfortunately, the current solution of paying overtime or third parties to walk properties over night isn’t much better.

In this video, Derek Cedarbaum explains how to implement a data-driven solution to detecting freezing conditions proactively.

(Interested in deploying a “Freeze Watch” solution? Get an instant quote)

Video Transcript

Hello, I’m Derek Cedarbaum and I’m here today to talk about how you, and owner, operator or manager of commercial real estate can take a more data-driven approach to preventing frozen pipe conditions in your assets in the wintertime.

We have a number of clients here at Enertiv that come to us every winter complaining about how they spend all this money on outsourced labor to walk their buildings every winter just to make sure that pipes are not going to freeze. Sometimes, they freeze because tenants will leave a ventilation unit, window or door open and temperatures dip far below freezing.

And what happens? Heating units can’t do their job. Temperatures get to a point where water freezes, and then the pipes they expand and burst. Then water comes pouring out onto the floor, the floors below, and owners are left with a bill upwards of six figures just to take quick remediation actions.

The result is unhappy tenants, unplanned expenses, disruption to tenants and potentially needing to move them if it’s really bad, which means potential loss of revenue on rent and overall increased risk related to tenant retention.

For us, it seemed a little bit antiquated to have building engineers spend his or her night in the building during the coldest nights of the year just to make sure that no pipes froze and adversely affected the operations of the building.

So, what did we do? We decided to work with some of our clients to put in a variety of sensors, including temperature sensors, at strategic locations in their buildings such as mechanical rooms, closets, hallways, lobbies, anything that might be exposed to very cold conditions if there were air intake on the coldest nights of the year.

This was in order to notify that building engineer who was going to sleep at the office, instead can sleep at home on a Saturday at 2 in the morning and be notified if temperatures have dipped below freezing or are quickly approaching freezing conditions.

By doing so, you don’t have to pay a union shop to walk your buildings every winter. You don’t have to pay your engineers overtime to stay at the building on weekend nights so they can be home with their families, which makes them happier. Finally, temperature sensors are better at detecting overall conditions in a vast portfolio of buildings of where and when certain frozen conditions may occur.

What does that mean for you as an owner, operator or manager of abuilding ? It means decreased risk, which means less likelihood of unplanned expenditures which reach upwards of six figures, it means lower risk of tenant disruption and potential temporary displacement, it means decreased risk of loss of revenue from them not paying rent that month, and helps increase the opportunity that you will maintain tenant retention rates.

Not to mention, sensors are a fraction of the cost that you would pay someone to stay overnight in your building or a third party to walk your building every winter.

It seems like a winner, a game changer even, but for us, it’s just common sense. So why don’t you see what you can do to take a more data-driven approach to managing your buildings, especially this winter coming up.

If you have any questions, we’re always here to answer them. See you next time.