The council that owns Marlborough Court is upgrading the lighting across all their 20+ care homes. The key driver behind this is bringing the emergency lighting to the next level of compliance. Both with the number of emergency fittings and the servicing. The monitoring (monthly functional and yearly duration test) is costly and a lot of work. Furthermore, the lighting is on 24/7, every day of the year. As most corridors are deserted most of the time, it is using up more energy than necessary.
Challenge
All the fittings in the communal areas (corridors, stairwells, storage rooms) and offices were upgraded to LED fittings. Due to the nature of this site more than 1 in 2 fittings is self-contained emergency. Together with the lighting manufacturer we designed a Mymesh lighting control system to control the lighting based on time triggers and presence detectors, and to monitor the emergency lighting.
Solution
Different light levels for day and night were specified. All corridors and rooms were equipped with battery-operated PIR presence detectors. The batteries have a 10+ year lifetime and save significantly on the installation cost as no mains- wiring is required. Furthermore, the installation was linked with the fire-alarm system; in case of an alarm all the lighting in the complete building will switch to 100%.
Benefits
The residents noted that the lighting is so much better and they love the interaction with actually being present. “Always wondered why all the lighting was on all day and all night. A waste of money” said a 90-year old resident. “This is so much better”.
And the council is very pleased with the performance; both with the monitoring of the emergency lighting and the reduced energy consumption. “The upgrade of the lighting with the Mymesh control system delivers a 89% energy saving. This is the first of many to come” according to the council.
