Early Detection instead of Costly Repairs: How our new Cloud-based Alert System works

When a heating system fails in winter, problems are inevitable: tenants complain, emergency repairs are time-consuming and expensive, and troubleshooting often happens under intense pressure. But many of these issues can be avoided—if you detect early signs of malfunction.

The most common causes of heating system failures are well known: low water pressure in the heating circuit, pump failures, or worn components. These problems rarely occur suddenly. In most cases, they develop over days or weeks. For example, water pressure typically drops gradually. Likewise, a failing pump often shows early signs—such as irregular startups or reduced performance—which may lead to insufficient domestic hot water.

Detecting such developments early enables timely intervention—saving time, money, and hassle.

New Cloud Feature: Smart Monitoring Rules, Easy Configuration

To make this possible, we’ve developed a new feature in the Sensaru cloud platform. It allows automated monitoring of typical fault patterns based on your existing sensor setup.

The feature consists of two key elements: setting up intelligent monitoring rules and forwarding alerts to the relevant teams.

For technical monitoring, specific rules can be defined for each unit—e.g., each individual heating system. The Sensaru platform focuses on the three most frequent failure causes and offers pre-configured, intelligent algorithms. No specialist knowledge in heating technology is required for setup.

Monitoring Options Include:

• Pressure Monitoring: Alerts are triggered when the heating circuit’s water pressure drops below a configurable threshold.

• Domestic Hot Water Monitoring: A notification is issued if the usual charging temperature of the hot water tank hasn't been reached in the past 24 hours. Reference temperatures are determined automatically.
  
  

• Heating Performance Check: The system ensures that flow temperatures follow typical operational patterns, using both internal sensor data and real-time weather information.
  
  

As soon as a deviation is detected, an alert is triggered. You can define the urgency level – ranging from "warning" to "critical" to "error."

Reliable Escalation: Automatic Alert Forwarding

Of course, an alert appearing in the portal alone is not enough. It is crucial that the information reaches the right people quickly and reliably, in line with their responsibilities. This is precisely what the second part of the new function is all about: automated alarm forwarding.

That allows you to set up reporting chains for each object. This ensures that critical alerts reach the correct contact, whether that's your internal service team, an external provider or the property management company.

In our next blog post, we’ll take a closer look at how these reporting chains work in practice. Stay tuned!