Your Plumber Keeping Up With The Times: How Smart Home Technology Works With Your Plumbing | Hinckley, IL
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Electronics isn’t the only technology that has been racing ahead over the last century. When the first computers were being put to work in the 1940s, nearly half of America’s homes still were lacking key elements of what we expect from our plumbing today such as hot water or flush toilets. Now, the two paths are crossing as electronics and smart home technology intersect with indoor plumbing in some pretty helpful options such as faucets that are easy for anyone to operate, even hands-free. At Just in Time, our plumbers provide excellence and the latest plumbing materials and technologies, along with a focus on customer service that sets us apart. We serve the Hinckley, IL area with expert plumbing and many more residential services including 24/7 emergency service.
Watching Your Water While You’re Away: Home and Vacation Property Smart Monitoring
Water-related damage is a significant part of home insurance claims. It makes sense that equipment that keeps an eye out for problems is a valuable feature your plumber can install in your home. Leak detection systems are available for high-risk areas such as bathrooms where the kids leave the faucet on or laundry rooms and the area around hot water heaters. Monitoring can be done remotely by any of the usual methods available today such as security system integration, smart home monitoring, or direct app-based connections. A shrill sound locally is usually available, too. These devices can alert the owner or property manager to problems so damage is minimal or averted, or they can route alarms through security systems so that a watchful monitoring company follows protocol to ensure that someone responds even when responsible parties are away.
Sump Pumps That Step in and Sound the Alarm
What happens when your sump pump fails? With modern backup systems, a secondary pump can detect the rising water and step in to cover for the main pump that’s offline, keeping the floodwaters at bay while also sounding the alarm so someone can replace the more powerful pump. Since water damage is so expensive to recover from, especially in a finished space or where there are valuable items stored or even electronics operating, a backup pump is an inexpensive bit of security.
Another answer to sump pump problems is battery backup which, like the UPS that keeps computer servers online, can sound an alarm when it takes over providing power to a working sump pump when the grid electricity has failed. After all, heavy rains and power outages do go together somewhat, don’t they?
Water Flow Monitoring Equipment
A basic method for recognizing water main leaks or determining if there are leaks within the house is to check the meter readings either on the bill or in person. Knowing that the water is going somewhere, a plumber can be called to find out what the problem is. Government surveys have indicated that hundreds or even thousands of gallons a year can be lost by very simple leaks that could be remedied by repacking or replacing valves and other simple repairs your plumbing service can do throughout the house in a single visit. Water monitoring equipment takes this practice one step further by letting you know when it senses that water is being lost, such as steady flows that don’t vary when the family is active or asleep.
Water Disaster Shutoff
A variation on the water flow monitoring is an emergency shutoff system that either automatically shuts off the home’s water when it senses a sudden surge in water usage that could indicate a major leak, or allows the homeowner to shut off the water remotely when detectors indicate either a sudden rise in water usage, usage while the building is unoccupied such as at a vacation property, or when leak detectors sense that something is wrong, and quick action is the best response. Like many smart home systems, remote monitoring and control by a smartphone can make a big difference in your home’s safety and security.
Energy Monitoring That Discovers Hidden Leaks
A lot of smart home technology has been used to optimize energy use in the home, from HVAC monitoring and predictive control to smart blinds and motion sensors that light and warm only the rooms that are in use at the time. Another place that energy use can be monitored is at the hot water heater, where smart home technology can track the energy used to heat the water, and recognize when something is causing inefficiency such as a single failure in a dual heater system, or when other factors in the home such as leaks are causing the system to produce more hot water than usual. With numbers, times of day, and patterns in hand, a homeowner can identify issues in hot water use, and a plumber can notice possible leaks not only at faucets and valves, but in more critical places like washing machine hoses, pipes in the wall, or in some homes hot water piping transiting under the concrete floor of the basement.
Your Resource for Plumbing Information as Well as Service
Our team of expert plumbers keeps up to date with technology like smart home devices and also upgrades to standard technology such as hybrid hot water heaters that increase efficiency while operating as a standard tank-based hot water source. When you have questions about specific plumbing upgrades or simply have a problem to solve, we’re the team to contact for information.
Your Hinckley, IL Smart Plumbers
We’re Just in Time, plumbers and much more providing services to homeowners in the Hinckley, IL area to improve, repair, and modernize their plumbing system. Our licensed plumbers have the experience to make effective repairs to your plumbing, but also to share their insights about ways that your home could benefit from smart devices or other plumbing advancements. Give us a call for more information and to make an appointment for a plumber to visit.