New Technology Makes High Rise Living Safer Than Ever

7/22/2019 (Permalink)

New Technology Makes High Rise Living Safer Than Ever

Houston has seen a boom in multi-family living especially in the luxury high-rise living sector.  Many Boomers who flocked to the suburbs to raise their families are not yerning to live closer to the city, shorten their commute and live a more holistic lifestyle and be able to walk to high end shops, restaurants and entertainment. 

Along with the increase in building of these high-rise condominiums buyers are also asking for more luxurious, enhanced lifestyle features and more built in technology.  

Beyond smart refrigerators and doorbell cameras some building owners are opting for fully functioning safety programs that can assist firefighters in putting out high-rise fires.

Due to the explosive growth and easy access to internet connections and faster bandwidth internet is the catalos that allows for these new technologies to take root.  

These iOT technologies combine the power of four key technologies: sensors, actuators, cameras and fire panels. 

Sensors: include smart smoke detectors, LPG, motion sensors, tank level sensors and carbon dioxide and dioxide detectors.  These sensors can be integrated into smart technology that gives real time information to fire fighters on site.  They can pin point the greatest need and where home owners may still be inside the building in areas of high toxins.

Actuators: 1 relay node, pump control panel and ventilation control panel, these pieces of technology allow for the wireless connection of the data received by the sensors to the real time monitoring body out of harms way.

Cameras: allow for verification and true "eyes on the scene" that firefighters can tap into to see live what is happening in the building.  This is vitally important not only for the first responders but also for command to navigate the fire and be the eyes of fighters inside the burning building. 

These smart technologies can also send automatic communication to tenants and owners within the building via email and text messages.  This way real time communication can be sent to all concerned parties to let them know of situational changes, mandatory evacuations and all clear signals when it is safe to return to the building.

Over all technology is helping to make our buildings safer and more reactive when disaster strikes.