I’d estimate that about 20% of buildings in NYC have a broken or faulty mixing valve.
What is a mixing valve, and why is it important?
Basically, it controls the temperature of the water being sent to showers, tubs, and sinks in buildings. The mixing valve makes sure the water is hot enough for everyday needs but not too hot that someone can get burned.
Many building management teams don’t realize their mixing valve is broken (for years!) until a tenant burns themselves (or worse, their child) with scalding hot water in the tub or shower.
This highlights a broader issue with building management: Too often, management is reactive to problems instead of proactive in mitigating minor problems before they become big problems.
It’s not always the property manager’s fault.
Most buildings have nothing to monitor the temperature of hot water and the integrity of the mixing valve (or really most aspects of how the building is operating).
Checking things manually can be difficult and time-consuming. It takes lots of time to venture into the boiler room of large commercial buildings and manually check all the systems every day or week.
This conundrum is precisely why buildings are moving towards smart controls - a system of wireless sensors and connected software.
Instead of manually checking for problems or waiting for a tenant to report a significant problem, the smart ‘buildings of the future’ tell us exactly when a minor problem begins.
Right now, 20%+ of buildings are potentially dangerous to the people living and working in them. 0% of those need to be that way.
It’s time to get smarter with our buildings and the tools we use to run them.
