TECHNOLOGY which can scan a property and detect if residents are living in fuel poverty is being rolled out in a trial in Paisley.

The internet of things (IoT) initiative, spearheaded by smart asset management company, iOpt Assets, aims to tackle fuel poverty in social housing, and help housing associations and local authorities save money on property management and repair bills.

Working with Renfrewshire Council, Johnstone-based iOpt has been detecting temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels at 50 social homes around Paisley over the course of the project, which launched in July 2016.

The pilot scheme is monitoring a range of property types to capture data in near real time, allowing the local authority to identify anomalies and take preventative action to protect tenants and its property assets.

Consistently high humidity and low temperatures, for example, could indicate a tenant is living in fuel poverty; while high carbon dioxide levels suggest there might be a problem with ventilation and air quality.

The Renfrewshire project has delivered an estimated 600 per cent return on investment to the council, by preventing costs that would have arisen from damage to properties over the next two years.

Working with CENSIS, the Scottish Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems, iOpt Assets hopes to have rolled out the sensing technology to 2,000 homes in Scotland by the end of the year, spread across a variety of local authorities and housing associations.