Heat Seek
Hardware Design & Development, Software Development
“We found Tanooki at exactly the right moment.” Executive Director at
Heat Seek Noelle Francois was at a pivotal place within the development of their product, and with their CTO leaving, turned to Tanooki to step in to develop both the hardware and software components of Heatseek. Tanooki provided the technical expertise to span both periods of active development and maintenance, as well as managing Heat Seek’s junior development resource to align with the technical roadmap.
Heat Seek - a non-profit organization - was created to ensure that all New Yorkers had access to safe, warm temperatures in their apartments. Unlike many other cities, landlords are required to control the heat in their buildings, but there are often over 200,000 complaints in one season alone, often concentrated in lower-income neighborhoods. Heat Seek looks to solve that problem by providing & installing proprietary temperature sensors in apartment buildings and offering technical expertise to assist tenants in documenting when their landlords fail to provide adequate heat during the wintertime.
But this is more than just a helpful hardware product; the data is invaluable. Heat Seek’s sensors provide objective, reliable temperature data needed to expose the problem and hold landlords accountable. The accompanying web application analyzes the sensor data, alongside the outdoor temperature, in order to record each hour the temperature falls below the legal limit as defined by the NYC Housing Code. Data is displayed in a graph as well as a comprehensive heat log so that tenants and their advocates have robust data to take to court and use in landlord-tenant negotiations.
From the beginning of the partnership, Tanooki has been involved from both the hardware and software sides. After experiencing an issue with some of the sensors not reporting, the Tanooki team dove in, found (and fixed!) the issue, and then immediately started strategizing a path forward that would allow for the creation of cheaper and less complex devices. Tanooki designed a custom circuit board with a temperature sensor and cellular communication device which would plug into a readily-available open-source hardware device based on the Arduino platform, namely the Adafruit Feather.
“We most likely would not exist without them,” says Francois.
“We've benefitted enormously from their tech expertise. The team is thoughtful and attentive, and they take care to get at the root of what you're trying to achieve so they can find the most efficient and cost-effective way to bring your idea to fruition.”
With Tanooki’s ongoing support over the past 7 years, Heat Seek has been able to fulfill its mission and support 500+ families in New York City struggling to get adequate heat during the winter.
“I would not be able to do this work without [Tanooki] and really value our partnership,”
says Francois. Tanooki also helps support managing and utilizing the data that has allowed Heat Seek to drive policy outcomes and impact for its users and have worked together to continue to refine the devices to keep costs down and adapt to the changing infrastructure. The partnership has also included continuing to update and maintain the web application which houses the temperature logging data, generates reports, and provides access and alerts to tenants and tenant advocates.