owa-based smart buildings firm Igor has announced Nexos Intelligent Disinfection, which pairs ultraviolet lighting with IoT controls to enable widespread, automated disinfection of surfaces.
 
According to Igor founder and chief technology officer Dwight Stewart, the patent-pending offering was inspired by the need for confidence during the Covid-19 pandemic.
 
“As more spaces reopen, intelligent disinfection becomes even more crucial,” said Stewart. “Building owners and business operators are anxious about keeping their employees and customers safe. Igor’s turn-key, rapid-deployment kit instantly provides maintenance-free automated disinfection, minimises human contact and creates an audit trail of data.”
 
Healthy-building scientists advise owners to incorporate a layered approach to disinfection in the design, operation and management of better buildings. Nexos Intelligent Disinfection fits well with this strategy as its power-over-Ethernet (PoE) connectivity makes it easy to integrate several other disinfection systems beyond ultraviolet lighting, such as intelligent air purifiers or gas vaporisers. With all these unified within Igor, executives have a comprehensive view and data-rich evidence of the proactive actions taken to prevent virus outbreaks in their buildings.
 
Aware of the potential dangers of ultraviolet lighting, Igor designed Nexos Intelligent Disinfection to connect with other smart devices, such as occupancy sensors and motion detectors. It can also be configured to work with smart locks and warning lights to prevent humans from entering a space that is being cleaned.
 
In May 2020, Nexos Intelligent Disinfection received funding from Clean Energy Trust, a nonprofit that supports early stage cleantech start-ups to bring the product to the global market. Clean Energy Trust used support from the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator programme, a technology innovation platform funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and co-administered by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
 
“We’re very excited about the possibilities Igor has opened up with its PoE-based smart building platform,” said Erik Birkerts, chief executive officer of Clean Energy Trust. “Dwight’s vision to solve very specific problems, exemplified by Nexos, has proven to be a game-changer for the built environment. He and the Igor team are democratising building automation by innovating around very deployable, off-the-shelf technology.”
 
Igor’s flagship product, Nexos, is a PoE-based IoT smart building platform that incorporates hardware, software and cloud analytics to enable smart and secure buildings. Combined with an open API and real-time data, it integrates lighting controls with building systems, low-voltage devices, business applications and more. Systems have been installed in more than 30 countries.