FMJ.CO.UK ENGLISH HERITAGE CASE STUDY
MAY 2021 25
while also providing additional services to
clients in terms of energy reduction. The
sensors are designed to co-habit
seamlessly with any existing
building management
and environmental
monitoring systems.
According
to Stephen
Chadwick CEO
of Shepherd:
“The sensors
aren’t even
the clever bit,
they’re just a
way to send
live real-time
data back to the
Shepherd hub to be
analysed.
“The Shepherd hub is
an analytics engine which
turns raw data into knowledge,
achieved by layering data and enabling us
to analyse new subsets to look for di erent
problems. All of that is represented on the
Shepherd hub as information, and that
information contextualised for a particular
building creates new knowledge and
knowhow that is fed back to the onsite
engineering and management team; and
back to Ecclesiastical.
“Because the BMS is only as good as when
it was installed, our process is to extract as
much data as we can, which provides a gap
analysis on the assets being monitored.
In Kenwood there was also a humidity
monitoring system, so we were able to
utilise that, and filled in the gaps with the
monitoring equipment.
“It’s the same as with any o ice building
or heritage site, in that we work in
that structured way to understand the
architecture, position the sensors that
need to be utilised on top of what is already
available, which results in full building
coverage.”
ENERGY SAVING
English Heritage’s annual budget for
maintaining its buildings is around £15
million, so as well as helping protect the
building’s assets the pilot also aimed to help
the charity meet its objective to achieve a 25
per cent reduction in operating costs.
“These buildings are incredibly expensive
to maintain,” says Hartley, “from the cost of
keeping the lights, gas and electrics on to the
sheer maintenance necessary.”
The pilot has increased the understanding
of how energy is utilised within the site
and improved the level of predictive
maintenance. This ‘predict and prevent’
approach is vital in increasing an
understanding of how key systems, assets
and components are utilised within such
a complex property. Shepherd can now
provide information across the estate
which is accessible to a layman on why a
particular system needs to be replaced,
instead of waiting for it to break and
avoiding disruption and reputational
damage especially in the core business of the
property.
Says Chadwick: “It’s about providing real
time information that creates new knowledge
for clients to be able to understand what
exactly is going on rather than organising one
o warranty or maintenance visits. It’s the
predictive element which tells you when is
REAL TIME MONITORING
The project involved installing dozens of sensors,
which are unobtrusive, battery-operated and do not
require Wi-Fi, inside Kenwood House to discreetly
monitor environmental changes within the building.
The sensors deployed in the estate then send live realtime
data back to be analysed.
Says English Heritage’s Senior Estates Manager,
Nicola Duncan-Finn: “While similar monitoring services
are o en installed in modern buildings, this is the first
time this technology has been piloted within an 18thcentury
heritage property of this scale, complexity and
national significance.
“The sensors don’t rely on Wi-Fi and can cope with
thick walls. Long battery life means they’ll continue
to function during power cuts – an incident
they’ll actually help to monitor –
along with boiler breakdowns,
electrical fires and water
leaks. They’ll alert our
estates team to any
critical issues as soon as
they emerge – helping
us protect the house
and its collection
in the event of an
emergency.”
“These sensors
capture data on
environmental factors
like temperature and
humidity, which is critical
when it comes to conserving
our collections. Real time
monitoring will give us even more
information when it comes to prioritising
our preventative maintenance programme. For
instance, we’re now able to identify performance issues
in our mechanical and electrical plant or catch minor
leaks before they cause major problems.”
Retrofitting sensors within older buildings is
Shepherd’s business model and they’re working closely
with Ecclesiastical to help reduce the number of claims
English Heritage’s annual
budget for maintaining its
buildings is around £15 million, so as
well as helping protect the building’s
assets the pilot also aimed to help
the charity meet its objective to
achieve a 25 per cent reduction
in operating costs.”