Nearly half a million people live in care homes across the UK and this number will rise as the country’s population ages.
Ensuring a good quality of life for care home residents is a key social concern of our time. Care homes are expected to provide safe and comfortable environments that support the physical and emotional wellbeing of residents, as well as being a supportive workplace for care givers.
But the sector is under strain. It currently faces a financial crisis due to rising operational costs which must be managed alongside the requirement to provide high-quality care.
Smart building technologies, including Building Management Systems (BMS) and Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS), offer a way forward. Importantly, they also support wider ESG (Environmental Social Governance) and sustainability strategies which are increasingly influencing the decision-making of key stakeholders, including investors, in the sector.
These systems integrate with building services, including HVAC and lighting controls systems, to provide cost-effective, scalable solutions that enhance operational efficiency while meeting the health and wellbeing needs of residents, care home staff and visitors.
Enhancing wellbeing through smart climate control
Thermal comfort is one of the highest contributing factors influencing people’s overall satisfaction in the places where they live or work, impacting individual levels of motivation, alertness, focus and mood, according to the WELL Building Standard.
This makes it a critical element in care home environments where depression is a widespread mental health issue and is associated with higher rates of illness and mortality.
Smart climate control systems enable care homes to automatically monitor and adjust indoor temperatures and humidity levels in real time, to ensure a consistent and more comfortable environment. Better climate control can also help reduce the risk of health issues older people can be more susceptible to, such as dehydration or heat stroke during hot weather, and respiratory problems in colder weather.
Furthermore, the use of occupancy sensors enables a BMS to optimise energy usage across the site, helping to deliver energy savings.
Supporting better health with automated lighting systems
For care home residents, particularly those struggling with dementia or other cognitive challenges, maintaining a natural day-night ‘circadian rhythm’ – the body’s internal clock – is crucial. There is broad, evidence-based scientific consensus that lighting systems should support circadian rhythms to promote overall health. Increasing daytime light intensity indoors improves daytime alertness and reduces sleepiness, while softer, warm toned lighting helps ready the body for sleep in the evening.
A BMS can integrate with lighting control systems to support residents’ natural sleep / wake cycle. It does this by automatically adjusting lighting brightness and colour temperature throughout the day to simulate natural light patterns.
Reducing the risk of illness through better indoor air quality
As the Covid pandemic brought into sharp focus, poor indoor air quality is linked to a range of health issues, including respiratory illness. This can be particularly harmful to elderly people who may already have compromised immune systems.
Smart air quality monitoring systems continuously track levels of pollutants, allergens, and humidity levels alerting staff when air quality dips below healthy levels. Automated ventilation systems respond by increasing airflow or filtering out harmful particles, ensuring care homes maintain a consistently healthy environment for their residents.
A CO2 sensor is a particularly important component of air quality monitoring. If levels become too high, this could potentially cause drowsiness and other cognitive problems for both residents and staff. However, a CO2 sensor will trigger an alarm and alert the building’s HVAC system to increase the ventilation rate before CO2 levels increase too much.
A BMS can help prevent outbreaks of respiratory illnesses, including Covid, the flu, and other airborne infections, through its ability to monitor and respond to changes in air quality – potentially saving lives.
Creating a better workplace for care home staff
It’s important to remember that a care home is also a workplace that operates around the clock. In addition to meeting the comfort needs of residents, smart building solutions can also help deliver a better work environment. A research review by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) found that investing in building-based health strategies increases overall staff wellbeing as well as productivity rates. Higher ventilation rates lead to an 8% uptick in employee performance, while a certified ‘healthy’ building (as defined by the WELL Building Standard) can lead to a 10% increase in overall perceived mental health.
Smart building solutions can transform a care home, no matter the size, complexity or age of the site, into a healthier, smarter environment – and help meet a range of ESG and sustainability goals. In particular, these technologies help organisations meet the Social element of ESG because of the wellbeing improvements they are able to deliver.
By integrating with, and automating, key building services, BMS enable care homes to provide environments that respond to residents and care staff needs and enhance them as places to live or work. In addition to optimising the performance and management of HVAC and lighting control systems, they can also be integrated with security, surveillance, and access control systems to offer a centralised platform for monitoring and controlling a multitude of building functions.
How Cura Energy supports smart building solutions for healthier care homes
Cura Energy Ltd is a leading system integrator providing a wide range of BMS and BEMS packages – as well as energy metering strategies and installation. We are vendor agnostic and proud to be an approved supplier and installer of best-in-class systems by Siemens, Priva, RDM, Trend and others. These systems enable care homes to improve building climate control, lighting, air quality, and safety, supporting both the physical and emotional wellbeing of residents.
Furthermore, these technologies support the wider operational efficiency and cost savings and the overall sustainability of care homes whether the site is small or large, a new development or an older building.
- Please get in touch to discuss any aspect of your estate’s building management systems.
Content Team
Work in Mind is a content platform designed to give a voice to thinkers, businesses, journalists and regulatory bodies in the field of healthy buildings.
