"It's very much an individualized system and tenants like that they can have their unit acclimatized to their needs," says Montgomery.

Software installed on the property manager's computer allows them to view the entire building of suites and layout of each apartment.

Forest Manor has spent about $18,000 to have the units fitted with the sensor technology. Modlin says buildings can realize an estimated 20 to 30 per cent savings in heating costs by using the system.

The HappyBuilding.com system has also been able to regulate temperatures for a building in Dundas that is home to mostly senior citizens. It's one of the seven buildings Jeff Hageman and his family owns and operates. Hageman was looking for a way to better control heat all day in his tenant units in the eight-storey, 76-unit residential building Built in the late 1960s, heating was difficult to regulate. Residents could control airflow from the radiators in their units but the control was minimal.

"We had done several things to make the comfort level in the building as consistent as possible. This building is predominantly senior and its exposure to the sun is such that one side of the building has always been cooler than the other," says Hageman who had the system installed last fall.

"Instead of one half of the building opening their windows to cool off while the other side is not quite warm enough, this gives us the ability to keep the temperature perfect across the board," says Hageman.

He says tenants have fewer complaints and seem satisfied with the system.

Hageman says he didn't get any resistance from his tenants because he explained to them that it was going to help regulate the temperature.

"It had been a centralized system so none of the residents had much control within the unit," he says.

Once a baseline temperature is set, the property manager can monitor for blips in the system such as temperature drops that might be caused by an open window.

Hageman says he anticipates a "substantial savings" in heating costs this year but won't know until the system has been in place a full year.

He estimates his investment in the sensors and thermostats was about $200 per unit and it took about one hour to install the equipment.

< 1 | 2 | 3