Real Estate Broker · Bellingham, WA · Member since 2012 · 20 posts · 5 votes
A friend and small multi-family client of mine has start-up they've been pitching to angels and VC's, and I wanted to run it by the BP community of big MF investors and property managers.
It's an inexpensive, golf-ball size gizmo that snaps onto a water pipe, reads even the most infinitesimal movement of water (slow leaks) and sends that info via bluetooth back to a central computer.
A bucketful of these can track leaks throughout an entire development.
Think of large hotels or many-many-unit MF's where the investor is paying utility costs.
At this stage, they're basically looking to get in front of people, to pitch the gizmo, build some user-cases, etc. They're also looking for a larger property to beta-test.
I'd love to share with them the BP community's thoughts, questions, interest level...
I'll get my friend, Steve, on this thread to answer questions and explain.
Real Estate Investor · Audubon, PA · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 8k+ votes
11y
Not so good if there is one of those hot water re-circulator devices installed already. And would not work on radiator piping or radiant floor heat piping.
Still might be useful if limitations are identified. The challenge then becomes giving the building owner some ROI numbers, so they can evaluate the investment in such a device.
Real Estate Broker · Bellingham, WA · Member since 2012 · 20 posts · 5 votes
11y
Chris, I've invited Steve onto the thread... he'll get in touch with you.
Steve, good points. One of the interesting things Steve has explained is that the system learns the water usage/movement patterns, and flags changes, etc.
But your points are exactly what they're looking for. THANK YOU for commenting... I'll enjoy watching the Q&A unfold here...
Rental Property Investor · Fredericton, New Brunswick · Member since 2013 · 7k+ posts · 4k+ votes
11y
It sounds a bit like a pipe pig, save it may be stationary. How must restriction does said gizmo introduce into the water flow?
Additionally, why bluetooth (very limited range) instead of Zigbee or ZWave which would allow it to be tied into building monitoring and automation systems.