Once upon a time, there was a landlord with a small rental property in Anchorage, Alaska. Unlike the landlords in horror stories, this one was diligent. They had installed building monitoring sensors to keep an eye on the home’s health and operations, knowing that someday the investment would pay off through energy savings, improved resilience, and fewer surprises. What they didn’t know was that it might save the home from a very expensive insurance claim.
Tenants, like all people, have different lifestyles. Some are homebodies, some are adventurers, and some work schedules that keep them away for days or even weeks at a time. The tenant in this home often fell into the latter category. Because of that, the landlord made a point of keeping a close eye on the property’s monitoring system, especially during Alaska’s long winters.
One day, in the middle of January, the landlord received a notification on their phone that the temperature upstairs had dropped below 55 degrees—the alert threshold they had set to help prevent frozen pipes. Heating issues seemed like the obvious concern, but little did they know that the furnace wasn’t the real problem.
After contacting the tenant and confirming they weren’t home and had no knowledge of any issues, the landlord threw the lights on top of the car and raced over at the posted speed limit because, as we all know, this was an emergency.
Upon arriving at the house, the landlord swung open the front door and a cloud billowed out.
But not smoke.
Steam.
After taking a brief involuntary shvitz in the entryway, the landlord began searching the house for the source. Was there a burst pipe? A flooded crawlspace? Some catastrophic plumbing failure hiding behind a wall? They searched high and low for anything that could explain why the home had apparently been converted into a community steam room.
The cause turned out to be exactly where any reasonable person would have looked first—after checking literally everywhere else.
The shower was running.
That’s it.
A simple shower left running continuously, pumping out roughly two gallons per minute of 120-degree water and turning the house into a giant humidifier. The solution was equally simple: turn the knob, stop the water, and start airing out the home.
But now imagine a different ending.
The story starts exactly the same way, except nobody receives an alert. The shower continues running for a day. Then two days. Then a week.
All that warm moisture would have worked its way into the framing, insulation, drywall, flooring, and personal belongings throughout the home. And if there’s one thing that loves wet wood more than a beaver, it’s mold. First comes the moisture, then the mildew, and before long the fungi arrive to join the party.
The problems wouldn’t stop there. This property relies on a private well and septic system. Running hot water continuously could have overworked the well pump, shortened its lifespan, and potentially overwhelmed the septic system. What began as a forgotten shower could have escalated into a full-scale restoration project.
Anyone who has experienced a major insurance claim can picture what comes next: contractors, demolition, drying equipment, reconstruction, paperwork, phone calls, and months of inconvenience. The kind of experience that makes you wish you had invested in a time machine.
Instead, all of that was avoided because a monitoring sensor noticed something unusual and sent a text message.
This isn’t a fairy tale, although it does have a happy ending. Because the owner invested a few hundred dollars in building monitoring sensors, they were able to identify a problem before it became a disaster. The result was a quick trip across town instead of a lengthy insurance claim and a major renovation.
Sometimes the best smart-home technology isn’t flashy. It doesn’t play music, answer trivia questions, or tell you the weather. Sometimes it simply taps you on the shoulder and says, “Hey, you might want to check the house.”
And sometimes, that’s enough to save it.
Interested in smart homes or building monitoring? Modern Igloo is here to help. We’re proud to be Alaska’s only GREEN Realtor Team, helping homeowners use technology to protect, maintain, and improve their homes.
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