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New York City Activists Put Bad Landlords' Feet in the Fire with M2M

By Ken Briodagh March 11, 2015

It’s been bloody cold in New York City. Recently, a pair of do-gooders has been using M2M to put the heat on landlords who are freezing their tenants to save a few bucks—a perennial problem in lower-income housing in the Big Apple. For years, tenants whose landlords have kept heat at unreasonably cold levels during the winter could file complaints with the city, and even sue in housing court, but the arguments often boiled down to he said-she said.

Now, Heat Seek NYC is helping those tenants by providing temperature sensor units. The Heat Seek units are powered by Kickstarter-funded Twine, a 2.7-inch square sensor integrated with a cloud-based reporting service. The durable, rubbery block has Wi-Fi and on-board temperature and orientation sensors. Power is supplied by micro USB or two AAA batteries. The device reports temperature readings to the Heat Seek servers at regular intervals, and if it drops below legal levels for too long (55 degrees at night and 68 degrees during the day, according to city ordinance), an alert is generated.

The system works in four steps: connect, analyze, identify, act. Any resident of the city can request that a free sensor be connected in his or her apartment. Once it’s installed, even without an Internet connection, the Heat Seek sensor will begin recording and broadcasting. Once the data is collected, Heat Seek analyzes sensor data against outdoor temperatures and the minimum temperature requirements according to the NYC heating code in order to identify violations. Tenants can also review temperature data through the Web app. Once a violation is identified, Heat Seek records them, and tracks for patterns of abuse. The company also works with landlords who have requested to be part of the program to diagnose problems with their buildings’ heating systems. Finally, this data is allowing wronged tenants to take action and prove their claims with unbiased evidence in housing court, and even help responsible landlords heat their buildings more effectively while reducing costs.

William and Tristan Present Heat Seek NYC at New York Tech Meetup from The Flatiron School on Vimeo.

What other ways can M2M technology be the catalyst for societal change? Tell us in the comments.

Stay cool.




Edited by Maurice Nagle
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