But identifying unoccupied rooms in multi-occupancy accommodation is a game-changer for energy management, maintenance, and operational efficiency.

Energy Management

• Targeted Heating: Only heat rooms that are ‘actually’ occupied, reducing wasted energy spent on empty spaces.
• Lower Energy Bills: Heating unoccupied rooms is a major source of energy waste. Knowing which rooms are empty, helps cut unnecessary consumption.
• Occupancy Monitoring: Avoids peak energy demand spikes caused by heating all rooms regardless of occupancy, which reduces costs and strain on infrastructure.
• Supports Sustainability Goals: Reduces carbon footprint by eliminating heating where it’s not needed.

Maintenance

• Scheduling: Maintenance work can be targeted and prioritised to maximise efficiency. For example, urgency, location, type of task, access to equipment etc.
• Focus on Used Spaces: Maintenance efforts can prioritise occupied rooms where heat sources are actively used and essential for comfort.
• Detecting Issues Faster: When a room is unoccupied but heating is still active or shows anomalies, it flags a potential system fault or misuse (e.g., faulty thermostat or heater).
• Avoids Wear and Tear: Reducing heating in empty rooms lessens stress on equipment, extending lifespan and reducing frequency of repairs.

Using the bespoke Irus software tools means finding rooms is easy. Optimiser tells you how many of your rooms are unoccupied and what percentage that is of your building. It also provides a historic chart to show occupancy patterns over the previous 28 days. You can then run a report to establish which rooms are vacant. Optimiser also suggests actions that will benefit the efficiency and health of your building, e.g. check ventilation in empty rooms, ensure lights are off and that there is no rubbish left in the room.

Likewise Investigator shows a site wide overview of your property to provide room locations, here you can also check on lighting in empty rooms, which profiles are allocated among many other observations. Clicking on a highlighted room will enable a room-zoom which enters the controller screen for the space, where profiles can be changed etc.

Operational Efficiency

• Optimised Staff Time: Facilities teams can schedule inspections, cleaning, or maintenance visits more effectively by knowing occupancy patterns.
• Improved Response to Complaints: Quickly identify which occupied rooms might have issues versus empty rooms, focusing support resources where they matter most.
• Better Planning: Helps with room allocation, cleaning schedules, and even capital planning by understanding true usage patterns.
• Automation and Control: Irus smart control systems automate heating schedules and align to real use–reducing manual adjustments.

Energy Management: Cuts wasted heating, reduces bills, supports green initiatives

Maintenance: Focuses resources, detects faults early, reduces equipment wear

Operational Efficiency: Optimises staff scheduling, improves service response, informs planning

Knowing which rooms are unoccupied lets you heat smarter, maintain smarter, and operate smarter — saving money, reducing environmental impact, and improving occupant satisfaction.

ControlSensor+ IRUS  –  Control. Visibility. Intelligence.