Case study · Residential tower
Restoring reliable heat to every resident’s home.
A 37-storey tower housing 750 students faced unpredictable heating and water performance. Generation 7 helped diagnose the root causes and design a practical route back to comfort, confidence and efficient operation.
What was happening
Residents were experiencing fluctuating heat and unreliable boosted cold water across a high-rise network under constant day–night demand.
What was needed
A clear diagnosis of the underlying issues and a practical, low-disruption plan to restore comfort, confidence and operational stability.
What we unlocked
Precise cause-and-effect insight, actionable optimisation measures, and a path to better resident experience with lower energy waste.
When a building fails, people feel it first
In a high-rise home, heat and hot water are not luxuries – they are the basic signals that a building is taking care of the people who live inside it. But at this 37-storey student tower, those signals were weakening.
Across hundreds of apartments, residents were reporting inconsistent heating and issues with boosted cold water pressure. Operations teams were stuck in reactive mode, responding to symptoms without a clear view of the underlying causes.
The challenge wasn’t just technical. It was human. 750 students needed a building they could rely on every day.
A system drifting away from its design intent
Working alongside Fresh Heat Networks, we carried out a full diagnostic survey of the heat network and boosted cold-water systems: non-invasive testing, operational observations and a detailed condition review of critical plant.
What emerged was a pattern familiar in many large residential buildings: controls drifting, pumping regimes misaligned to real demand, and a network compensating for small inefficiencies by burning more energy than necessary.
The failures weren’t dramatic – but they were cumulative, and increasingly felt by residents.
Precision diagnostics with minimal disruption
With a building operating at full occupancy, interventions had to be targeted and respectful of residents’ lives. Every test was designed to pinpoint cause, not create chaos.
We built a clear chain-of-cause model to show where hydraulic imbalances, temperature drops and control settings were contributing to poor performance. This allowed operators to see the system as residents experienced it – not just how it looked on paper.
From this, we developed focused, prioritised recommendations designed to restore stability, reduce energy waste and prevent issues from recurring.
Reliable heat, calmer operations, better everyday life
Operators now have a clear blueprint for how the system behaves – and how to tune it so the building serves residents, not the other way around.
Heat distribution is more consistent. Cold-water performance is stable. Energy use is better aligned to real demand.
For hundreds of students living far from home, comfort is no longer a question mark. It’s the baseline.
Good heat is quiet, stable and human
Optimisation isn’t about squeezing more performance out of equipment. It’s about creating buildings that support people’s lives – predictably, comfortably and with less environmental cost.
When systems work as intended, residents feel at home. Operators feel in control. And the building quietly uses less energy to deliver more life.