A Look Into Smarter Living
KenCrest installs 25 Smart Thermostats within its Adult Community Living Homes in Philadelphia and Chester Counties.
By Sydney Kerelo
Earlier this year, as an extension of the Smarter Living Home New Business Idea (NBI), KenCrest installed 26 new smart thermostats in 15 Adult Community Living Homes in Philadelphia and Chester Counties.
In 2019, KenCrest launched a grant opportunity to fund new business ideas, service delivery, and innovations that benefit the organization and the people supported. Each year, KenCrest staff, board members, individuals we support, families we serve, and Not-For-Profit Organizations in the field can submit a New Business Idea initiative to gain possible funding for that project.
That same year, Kellie Smith, the Director of Operational Supports, and Tim Bosch, the Director of Infrastructure & Security, submitted an NBI to fund the transformation of a vacant group home into the Smarter Living Home. This home, equipped with various Enabling Technology devices, was designed to empower individuals with an intellectual or developmental disability to live more independently. It serves as a model home where individuals KenCrest supports can visit, experience the devices, and make informed decisions about installing them in their own homes.
From that NBI, they could install technology and various accessibility features like ADA-compliant countertops and open kitchen shelving in the homes. After completing the Smarter Living Home, an additional $20,000 could be spent towards their second phase: installing technology within the Adult Community Living homes.
So, they chose to update 15 homes with new smart thermostats. The Ecobee Wifi-enabled Smart Thermostats allow organizations like KenCrest to control the heating and cooling of houses from a cloud-based server and help maximize comfort and safety within our homes and unlock savings through lower energy rates.
“These devices are smart; you can get real-time alerts when things happen, like if people aren’t home during the day and the system goes down, you don’t have to wait until the next person’s shift to discover the problem,” says Bosch “This sends real-time alerts about what is happening to the system. Right now, only our facilities team and I are receiving these alerts, but the end goal is for all the program managers to get access and be proactive themselves.”
When deciding what devices to install within the Adult Community Living Homes, they wanted to target homes without some funding and those with high energy costs. Many of the homes in Montgomery County are HUD homes—a 1- to 4-unit residential property acquired by HUD due to foreclosure action on an FHA-insured mortgage that is then offered for sale. KenCrest operates these homes, however, renovations and upgrades are limited by HUD guidelines. Smith and Bosch’s research showed numerous homes within Philadelphia and Chester County that fit their criteria.
Plus, they needed a device that could be scaled towards the rest of the organization. And Ecobee was the perfect fit.
According to Bosch, one of the challenges they often face with smart technology is that they are usually geared toward the home user and don’t scale to more than one location. But with the Smart Thermostats, they can do just that.
Currently, 25 thermostats are installed across the locations, with many homes having two or more heating or cooling zones. They are registered on a cloud-based server that shows the various temperatures of the homes, tracks the temperature changes throughout the day, and even shows the humidity.
“I think having a central pane of glass where you can see what may be going on in the homes is great,” says Bosch. “It’s great for maintenance to have the ability to be proactive and know when there is a heating or cooling problem versus waiting for a repair ticket to come in. We have been working directly with Ecobee and a local HVAC Company, J. Halligan & Sons, to coordinate the installation of these devices.” This collaborative effort ensures that everyone is included in the process, fostering a sense of unity among all stakeholders.
“This is a way to use technology as an organization in a different way than we have in using it in the homes, and we are slowly expanding that,” Bosch adds.
Learn more about KenCrest’s New Business Ideas and how to submit an initiative. Plus, read more about KenCrest’s Smarter Living Home