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Client Within the Product Development Sector

£3.8 million Turnover
42 Projects
£100,782 Secured in R&D Tax Credits

Project Example

Advanced Product Development of a Temperature‑Based Water Leak Detection Platform

The company undertook a multi-year R&D programme to achieve appreciable improvements to a whole-home leak detection system based on temperature behaviour rather than conventional pressure sensing. While temperature-based detection was technically feasible in principle, significant uncertainties remained regarding scalability, accuracy, power efficiency and system resilience at large installation volumes.

On the device side, technological uncertainty centred on whether wireless communication protocols and firmware architecture could be optimised to minimise battery consumption while maintaining reliable connectivity in varied domestic environments. The challenge was to reduce the duration and frequency of device “wake” cycles without compromising data transmission integrity, update reliability or cybersecurity requirements expected of an internet-connected device operating within an insurance context.

In parallel, the company re-engineered the back-end detection engine and supporting infrastructure. Uncertainty existed as to whether the platform could process increasing volumes of device messages in a time-aware and reliable manner while materially reducing false positive classifications. This required restructuring elements of the system architecture and refining detection logic beyond incremental software enhancement.

A third strand addressed integration and user-facing layers, including mobile applications and partner service interfaces. The technical challenge was to redesign system interactions to enable near real-time data exchange and automated partner integration without introducing instability or manual intervention, while preserving performance across a growing installed base.

Collectively, these activities went beyond routine scaling or feature expansion. The project strengthened the technical foundation of temperature-based, whole-home leak detection at scale, delivering improvements in device power efficiency, detection accuracy and infrastructure resilience, and resolving uncertainties that could not be addressed through standard industry practice.

Get in Touch With One of Our Experts

In the 2023–24 tax year alone, UK businesses claimed £7.6 billion in R&D tax relief across 46,950 claims. If your business is investing in innovation, you could be eligible too.

Book a free consultation with our team and we’ll help you uncover qualifying activities, identify eligible costs, and understand how much you could claim.

 

Simon Wilby
Simon Wilby - Director