Custom app development for plant room installation inspections
A building automation system has to inform the manager when losses occur. That makes the alert the starting point: someone has to go to the plant room, see what is wrong and record what they did. That part is currently usually done by phone and from memory, and it is precisely the part you need to be able to show later.
Where the alert gets stuck
The system raises the alarm. Someone drives to the building, goes down to the basement and finds that a valve is jammed. He frees it, reports it to the manager by phone and moves on to the next building. What was done is recorded nowhere. When the next alert comes in on the same installation, the investigation starts again from scratch.
The plant room itself adds to the problem. A boiler room sits in the basement, an air handling unit on the roof behind a steel door, and there is no signal in either place. An app that only works when connected is simply not used there. So it goes back to a note on a phone, which is the last place anyone will look for it.
The third issue is the reading that does not come from the installation. Not everything is connected: an older gas meter, a water meter in a separate room, an intermediate meter that was never linked. These readings are currently noted on a slip of paper and later retyped, with the errors that come with that. For analysing consumption, though, these are the figures that complete the picture.
If an inspection engineer visits, they have their own record and their own deadline to register. See the app for on-site EPBD inspection.
How we build this
The app follows an engineer's route through the building. Anything that holds him up along the way costs time and therefore needs recording.
A code on the boiler, the unit or the meter opens the correct record straight away. Searching a list of fifty installations in a dark basement only has to happen once.
A checklist that does not match the installation gets ticked off without anyone looking. We walk the round with you first before putting it on a screen.
Basements and roof plant rooms have no coverage. The app works locally and synchronises later, keeping the original timestamp.
What the engineer finds and resolves goes back to the alert it came from. Without that loop, the system keeps repeating alerts that have already been dealt with.
What the app does in practice
The round with the recording carries the whole thing. What you add on top depends on how many buildings you manage and who carries out the work.
Opening the installation by scanning
A code on the boiler or air handling unit opens the correct record with that unit's history. No searching through lists in poor light.
Alerts with a resolution
The alert from the system comes in as a job and is closed with what was done. An alert without a resolution does not count as resolved.
Meter readings without retyping
Meters that aren't connected are recorded on site, with the time and reading. They go via an integration to the consumption view. A slip of paper that is later retyped causes errors and usually a day's delay.
Works in the basement
Everything is recorded locally and synchronised as soon as there is signal again. The original timestamp is kept, which matters for the consumption view.
Photographing the finding
A leak, a blocked grille or a jammed valve is recorded where you see it. That saves a second visit to work out what was meant.
Rounds across multiple buildings
Anyone doing four buildings in a day wants to know what is open at each one before arriving. See also the work order app.
Who we build for
How things work on the ground varies widely, and that shapes the design. Four situations.
Owners with multiple properties
The gain lies in comparing what happens in each building. An installation that raises the same alert every month is an investment question, not a maintenance question.
Healthcare and education
An in-house technical service running fixed rounds. Here the focus is less on reporting and more on proving that the round was carried out as intended.
Maintenance providers under contract
You work for several clients and need to be able to show, for each one, what has been done. That is also the basis for the verifiability your client needs themselves.
Managers of mixed-use property
Complexes combining residential and office or commercial space. The installations run alongside each other while the obligations differ, and you want to be able to separate them per part.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
Rounds and installations change more often than software does. Everything relating to checklists, installation types and alert rules should be configurable.
Why Appfront
The plant room has no signal
We build offline as the starting point. An app that only works above ground goes unused in the basement, and that is where the work happens.
An alert has to be closed
We build the loop back to the source. Without that loop, the system repeats alerts that have already been resolved, and people then stop paying attention.
Walk the round first
A checklist that does not match the installation gets ticked off without anyone looking. That is worse than having no checklist at all.
What has been done belongs to the installation
We attach the history to the device, not to the alert. When the next fault occurs, that is the first thing someone will want to see.
Security and privacy
An app that shows, per building, which installations are present and when nobody is on site contains more sensitive information than it might seem. We set access per building and per period, give an external maintenance provider only its own objects, and have that access lapse automatically.
For recording, the timestamp carries the evidence. A round that could be entered after the fact, on a different day, says nothing about whether it was actually carried out, and that is exactly the question in a contract dispute or a damage claim. We store records immutably with their original timestamp, even when synchronisation happens later, and show any correction alongside the old value. How we handle security ourselves is set out in our information security policy; reports from outside come through our CVD policy.
Frequently asked questions about the building management app
No. The control system continues to do what it does: directing and signalling. This app concerns the person who responds to the alert and the recording of what happened on site. We connect the two, so that an alert is closed with a reason rather than silence.
The obligation concerns the system that tracks consumption, analyses it and informs the building manager; that is covered on the building automation obligation page. This app is the part that follows on from that. For verifiability, what matters most is that something was actually done about an alert.
Yes, and that is deliberately the starting point. Boiler rooms are in basements and air handling units sit on roofs behind steel doors. Everything is recorded locally and synchronised later, with the original timestamp preserved.
Yes, and that is often the quickest win. Not every meter is connected, and the readings currently noted on a piece of paper are exactly the figures that complete the consumption picture. Recording them at the meter saves retyping and the errors that come with it.
Yes. We give an external party access to its own assets and period, so they can record their work in the same environment. This is usually what your contract requires too, otherwise you would have to request the evidence from them.
Usually, yes. If your installation register is held in a maintenance system, we pull that data across rather than creating a second list. Two records of the same installations always drift apart.
Yes, and that is necessary. Installations differ from building to building, and a list that doesn't match gets ticked off without anyone looking. We therefore keep checklists as a setting per installation type, so a change doesn't require a development request.
That depends on the number of premises, whether installations are already coded and whether external parties are involved. The round with recording and meter readings is usually quick to become useful; the integration with the analytics system takes more effort. We give a reasoned estimate after the discovery phase.
Do you know what happens to a report?
Take a fault from last month and try to find out who attended and what they did. If that takes more than a few minutes, that is where the gap lies. We build this as a standalone app and as part of a broader building an app project.