Predictive Maintenance for Sustainable Home Performance

Predictive Maintenance Is Critical for Maintaining Sustainable Home Performance

By Evelyn Long, editor-in-chief of Renovated

Nobody wants to throw away an entire hot water tank or HVAC system. These are expensive replacements, and the waste they generate sits in landfills, spreading chemicals and metals from e-waste and polluting the planet. The climate crisis requires households to take better care of their foundations and possessions to avoid unnecessary waste generation, where people dismiss the value of raw materials.

The best way to keep homes in near-mint condition while respecting the planet is by engaging in predictive maintenance and sustainability.

What Is Predictive Maintenance for Homes?

Predictive maintenance and sustainability go hand-in-hand because they prioritize increasing the longevity of a home’s materials and appliances. This involves a proactive mindset to fixing household concerns, usually by leveraging:

• The Internet of Things and other smart technologies
• Data analysis
• Algorithms
• Machine learning and artificial intelligence

These assets alert homeowners of problems before exacerbating into more expensive, deep-rooted concerns. Predictive maintenance aims to prolong household machinery and equipment to keep them performing as highly and efficiently as possible while avoiding damage, breakdowns or the need for a total replacement.

Residents have real-time awareness of the health and performance of everything from thermostats to air quality monitors, typically through simple phone apps or interfaces. How does this look, and what parts of the home can receive this treatment to prevent failures?

HVAC Systems

A dirty filter, clogged airway or part failure forces households to expend much more energy than they should. Smart sensors measure HVAC system performance, verifying heating and cooling, ventilation, and air quality are operating to expectation.

Regulating temperatures and minimizing particulates could prevent household illness and unexpectedly high bills. Indoor air quality directly impacts outdoor environmental health, so it’s important to stay conscious of how effectively the system manages flow, humidity and temperature.

Refrigerators

Refrigerators are one of the most energy-intensive appliances in the home. Being unaware of a fault in the compressor or door seal leads to a fridge and freezer of spoiled food and an emptied wallet from unnecessary grocery trips.

This is another insight into how predictive maintenance and sustainability relate because it prevents unnecessary food waste — a rampant worldwide concern — and excess electricity use. Ensure temperatures do not fall under or exceed the recommended ranges to predict an impending malfunction when it deviates from the norm.

Washers and Dryers

It’s easy to dismiss potential washer and dryer concerns, primarily when most people set their clothes on a cycle and forget it until it’s complete. By that point, the damage might be done. Doesn’t it always vibrate, at least a little bit? The rattling sound is probably just a few zippers tumbling around the basin, right?

Sometimes, second-guessing reveals something that needs immediate attention before disaster. Smart infrastructure and sensors can gauge water flow, belt health, and motor operations to prevent unexpected floods and fires. Additionally, leak detection notifies residents before foundational damage becomes apparent. Repairs to these appliances can uproot homes, destroy nearby soil health, and spread metals and chemical pollutants.

Plumbing

Low-flow appliances are critical for reducing water consumption and putting less stress on plumbing systems, but what about the parts people can’t feel or see? Predictive maintenance systems detect when piping clogs, pressure reaches dangerous levels or leaks begin. Even if it’s a small disruption, like a minor change in pressure, it gives households time to reach out to a professional before a pipe bursts or water shuts off.

Electrical

Keeping electrical systems intact is vital for preventing environmental disasters like fires within a neighborhood. Monitors oversee voltage and consumption disparities to inform residents of overloads or output dips. Knowing when to replace light fixtures, outlets, or wiring before interacting with them is crucial for safety and mitigating the need to rewire the entire home.

What Monitoring Tools Do People Use?

Finding problems before they get worse is key to keeping the home eco-friendly. These devices begin the predictive maintenance journey and help homeowners remain aware of the house’s wellness.

Solar Panels

Take the green mindset a step further by engaging with solar energy or other forms of renewable power. Many of these advanced systems come complete with monitoring technologies. Who wants to climb on the roof once a week to check the glass and inverters? If the module’s health relied on this consistency, it would not operate for long.

Systems allow homeowners a comprehensive overview of their energy generation and consumption based on the panel’s ability to track the sun. Users can see detailed data on how well it performs based on weather conditions and where their maximum energy potential lies. It’s also essential to get insights on panel degradation, primarily after severe weather like hail or heavy winds.

Smart Thermostats and Connected HVAC

Thermostat monitoring is more than setting a desired temperature and leaving it be. These sensor-powered devices learn home occupancy patterns and activities, changing humidity and temperature to respond accordingly — all with simple automation.

When this connects to HVAC systems, it’s even more powerful. Detecting something as simple as a refrigerant leak prevents toxic chemicals from entering the environment. Additionally, filter-change reminders help households stay comfortable and air remain pure and circulating.

Water Management Monitoring

Does a garden require a reliable irrigation system or is the piping under the house old and in need of constant vigilance? Sensors ensure antiquated infrastructure isn’t polluting water to the point where it isn’t safe to consume or use. They detect particulates like lead and nitrates so households can communicate with utility providers and treatment plants to unravel the concern before further environmental degradation and health issues occur.

Energy-Efficient Appliances

Programs like Energy Star and other environmental certifications allow customers to see which appliances are energy-efficient and make more informed purchasing decisions. Their optimized designs use fewer resources and apply assets appropriately to extend their life cycles, including:

• Clothing washers and dryers
• Refrigerators and freezers
• Dehumidifiers
• Dishwashers
• Cooking electronics
• Furnaces
• Thermostats
• Lighting
• Office equipment
• EV chargers
• Water heaters

Energy Storage Systems

Sustainable homes require backup electricity systems amid a power failure or disaster. For example, external battery storage houses excess renewable energy generation for later use. Predictive maintenance on preventive measures is just as important as watching over systems receiving daily use. Apps and sensors let people review storage capacity and battery health in charging cycles.

How Can Homes Optimize for Improved Performance?

Learning and using predictive maintenance systems is part of the sustainability portfolio. The other aspect relies on changing lifestyle habits to become more resource-conscious. How can households alter designs, change behaviors and reduce consumption to make their IoT systems work even smarter?

Passive Solar Design

People may want to renovate their homes to have natural heating and cooling without blasting the HVAC system. Passive solar design uses windows, awnings, and wall and flooring materials to distribute and store energy to release radiantly in the house.

For example, an awning provides necessary shade and cooling when the sun is highest in the summer. In the winter, the sun’s rays can sneak through the windows, store warmth in wood flooring and release gradually throughout the day.

Insulation and Weatherstripping

Predictive maintenance measures may notify residents of windows or doors leaking heat. Putting extra panes on windows, reviewing attic insulation, adding weatherstripping and applying caulking are just a few ways to separate indoor and outdoor air. It makes temperatures less volatile and easier to manage. Plus, it makes smart monitoring systems more accurate at gathering data when fewer influences lead to anomalies.

Green Roofs and Living Walls

A green roof utilizes the space to grow plants for eating or simple aesthetics. The added greenery acts as a carbon sink and temperature regulator for the home, reducing how hard HVAC systems and thermostats work. Plus, heavy rains have less of an impact on roof health because a rooftop garden is an effective storage and drainage system. Devices can track plant health, moisture levels and structural integrity.

Water Conservation and Rainwater Harvesting

Plumbing systems receive less stress if homes have natural water stores at their disposal. Barrels accumulate rainwater for countless uses, including gardening, flushing toilets and refilling outdoor features like fountains. Be sure to engage in proper filtration and treatment for consumption, cooking and cleaning.

Additionally, households may incorporate other water recycling systems and drought-resistant landscaping techniques to ensure the land captures and uses as much water as possible.

Permeable Surfaces

Permeable surfaces are essential for flood and runoff management. Consider how effective gravel driveways are at controlling flow compared to a flat, paved area. When stormwater is rampant, subsequent erosion and displacement of species may be the last considerations people make before protecting their property. However, these are considerable environmental consequences.

Smart water control increases the chance it permeates the soil into underground aquifers, which treatment plants need recharging via the rain cycle to provide utilities to residents.

Predictive Maintenance and Sustainability

The world lives in a throwaway culture where every item and action in the home has a carbon footprint and lasting environmental impact. Changing this mentality requires people to pay more attention to their home’s performance to identify problems before they become uncontrollable.

This leads to torn earth, polluted soil and water, and trash piles emitting greenhouse gases. Incorporating even one predictive maintenance tactic helps the planet heal while reducing the amount of wasted money and headaches for residents in the future.

About the Author

Evelyn Long is a writer and the editor-in-chief of Renovated. Her work has been published by NCCER, Build Magazine and other online publications.