The Remote Activation will be a complementary device specifically and uniquely designed to be installed with the EasyAssist™, NIA Project NIA_CAD0063, developed by Oxford Product Design. The Remote Activation shall be installed in the homes of domestic gas customers where the situation warrants additional accessibility. It will provide a connected triggering method for the EasyAssist™ up to 2m away from the ECV.
The Remote Activation Pack places an additional STOP method away from the EasyAssist™ ECV. The ultimate function is the same – assisted closure of the ECV. The action of triggering this product, defined as remote activation, acts like pressing the button on the EasyAssist™, which in turn triggers the mechanism and closes the ECV.
Benefits
Between Aug 21 and Jan 22, the average costs for reinstatement within Cadent for installing a new meter was £632.32.
The average time to install a new meter is 2 hours and the average cost of a new metre is £238.00
Taking into account labour*, based on the above figures, the average cost to install a new meter and reinstate within Cadent is £888.14
In this same period there were 4155 meter moves, of which 161 were for Customers in Vulnerable situations. Extrapolated, this would mean on average there would 9972 meter moves per year, 386 for Customers in Vulnerable situations.
With the remote actuation device, there are no reinstatement costs.
It is estimated that the average time to install the device is half an hour and the early indictive costs of the device are £26.00 each.
This would mean the average cost to install a remote actuation device would be £30.46, including labour*
Based on the figures above this would mean that a financial benefit of £331,000 per year could be achieved
*Labour costs based on the hourly National Living Wage 2022
Learnings
Outcomes
The project successfully demonstrated the installation and operation of the EasyAssist™ Remote device within live operational environments and generated valuable evidence regarding usability, installation practices, compatibility and customer accessibility requirements.
Key outcomes included:
· 15 installations planned.
· 11 installations completed and assessed.
· Four devices failed let-by testing and were removed from the field trail.
· Multiple installation and design improvement opportunities identified.
· Positive customer and engineer feedback relating to accessibility and ease of use.
· Evidence generated demonstrating limitations in reliability for deployment in safety critical applications.
The project identified significant shortcomings under real world operating conditions, and the product remains at a developmental stage pending redesign and further validation.
Lessons Learnt
The project generated significant learning despite failing to meet its primary deployment objective.
The most important learning from the trial is that emergency gas isolation products must consistently achieve complete gas shut off under all operating conditions. A single failure has the potential to undermine the safety case for deployment. Four let-by failures were recorded during the field trial, demonstrating that the device had not achieved the level of reliability required for operational use. The project reinforced the importance of conducting controlled operational trials before approving new products. Previous development and beta testing activities had demonstrated sufficient confidence to progress to field trials; however, live operational deployment exposed issues that had not been identified during earlier evaluation activities.
Whilst the primary concern related to shut off reliability, engineers consistently identified issues relating to fixing arrangements, screw sizes, wall plugs and mounting arrangements. Future designs must consider practical installation requirements as part of the overall engineering solution.
The trial demonstrated that many customers would benefit from an alternative means of gas isolation, particularly where ECVs are difficult to access or operate. Several trial locations involved elderly customers, mobility impaired customers and installations with challenging access arrangements. The project therefore validated the customer need that originally motivated the innovation.
Future projects should ensure that any failure identified during field trials is supported by detailed engineering investigation and documented corrective actions before progression to subsequent trial phases.
