Purus and Talkpool release LoRaWAN smart floor drain on the Nordbygg trade show

Floor drain experts Purus, and Talkpool, specialists on wireless sensor technology, present a floor drain, which has a built-in sensor device to detect water leakages. This ‘smart’ floor drain will provide an alarm when a leakage is detected, thereby preventing expensive costs related to water damages. In Sweden alone, water damages cost real estate owners more than half a billion EUR per year.

It’s important to understand what causes the costly water damages and how it can be prevented. Therefore, the Water Damage Centre in Sweden (Vattenskadecentrum), a consortium of insurance companies and branch organizations, annually reports the water damages handled by insurance companies. The latest report showed that the recommendations for waterproofing bathrooms, a recommendation which came ten years ago, starts to result in a decrease in water damages now. At the same time though, the water damage costs of more than half a billion EUR per year show that there are still a lot of additional improvements to be done.

A couple of years ago, insurance company Folksam initiated a collaboration between Purus, Anticimex and Talkpool, to explore the opportunities to use new technology to reduce water damage costs. Together, the partners have a broad range of competences in relevant fields related to water and moisture damages:

• Purus – as leading manufacturer of floor drains
• Talkpool – as experts in radio- and sensor technology
• Anticimex, as experts in building damage inspections related to water and moisture

Early detection results in a decrease of 60% in reparations costs

After a period of extensive analysis and development work, Purus and Talkpool have jointly developed a solution in the form of a smart floor drain, in combination with a wireless network system and analysis software. The floor drain has a LoRaWAN device in it, which transmits an alarm over the internet when a suspected leakage is detected. A physical inspection then determines if there indeed is a leakage, and this early detection significantly minimizes the damages.

Folksam has run a pilot installation for one year with actual customers. It was easy to explain the benefits of the system to the customers and the solution was well received. Although the sample size was small, the smart floor drain was able to show a decrease of water damage related costs by 60%, through the enablement of partial repairs of the bathroom.

The two most common causes of damages in bathrooms are:

1. Faulty connection between the waterproofing seal and the floor drain

2. Damaged waterproofing seal

The project has shown that the smart floor drain is effective in detecting the leakages resulting from these issues. The field tests were performed by research institute RISE.

The smart floor drain will be showcased at Nordbygg

Purus and Talkpool will showcase the smart floor drain at Nordbygg, the Nordics’ biggest event for the construction- and real estate industry. The event takes place on April 26-29 at Stockholmsmässan in Stockholm.

We welcome you to booth A06:10, where we will demonstrate the smart floor drain in both a wood- and a concrete floor version.

For more information about the product see: https://talkpool.com/product-category/lorawan-sensors/