Education Today Education Today Magazine
Lighting controls specialist B.E.G. enabled a London free school to achieve its energy efficiency ambitions and provide an enhanced learning environment for its pupils.
John Keats Primary Free School occupies the first two floors of a new residential development in South Bermondsey, London and caters for 420 pupils up to year six.
B.E.G. was selected to supply the presence and motion sensors for the school as the products offer the dual benefits of complete lighting flexibility to ensure that the building is fully energy efficient, while creating an excellent learning environment.
The new school has high ambitions for its pupils and, with the building designed with education in mind, the lighting had to be designed and controlled in a way that would maximise the pupils’ comfort, concentration and alertness.
The lighting also needed to be fully automated and adjustable, with different areas requiring different lighting levels and timings, and the additional need that areas were only lit when occupied, to save energy and reduce costs. To meet all these requirements, B.E.G. supplied two different types of presence and motion sensors from their wide range of products.
The sensors selected from B.E.G.’s KNX product range for the John Keats Primary Free School project, included the PD11-KNX FLAT FC and the PD4 KNX C FC.
The super-flat PD11 sensor was selected for the classrooms and other rooms, including the headmaster’s office, as, at only 1mm thick, it is one of the flushest and most discreet sensors on the market.
Use of these detectors meant the lights would only switch on when an occupant enters the room and switch off when they exit the space making them very energy efficient and cost-effective. Reading the level of daylight in the room, the PD11 automatically adjusts the luminaires to the required level to make sure the lighting level is always sufficient, making maximum use of natural light.
For the corridor areas of the school, which run nearly the entire length of the two floors, the PD4 was selected. The product is specifically designed to cover long corridors and so fewer devices were required to get full coverage, resulting in a reduction in time and further cost savings for the school.
The building controls, cabling and trunking was designed and installed by Neo System Automation Limited. The company used the B.E.G. lighting sensors as part of an all-encompassing modular I/O WAGO 750 Series building control system, along with other DALI and KNX devices, to control not only lighting but heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) too.
The system monitors conditions in order to provide optimum lighting, temperature, humidity and CO2 levels, all of which have been shown to improve alertness and concentration.
Importantly, with use of the B.E.G. sensors, school staff can manually override the controls and turn the lighting down or off for presentations or showing films, while reducing lighting levels in areas when there is no occupancy at all. Automated controlled systems can reduce energy costs by up to 30 per cent compared to manually controlled systems.
Paul Jones, B.E.G. Sales Director for UK & Ireland, said: “B.E.G. was naturally delighted to work with Neo System Automation Limited on the fantastic new John Keats Primary Free School.
“The PD11 has a very sophisticated design and only .85mm of the device can be seen when built into a ceiling making it virtually invisible so it was ideal for placement in the classrooms and offices. It is very discreet but it still capable of detecting motion and light within an area of up to 9m.
“The PD4 was the most logical product for the corridors as it saved installers lots of time as fewer sensors were needed for this space thanks to the extensive coverage it offers.
“B.E.G. is proud to have been involved with this project which, not only help this new school reduce its energy and save money from day one, but it has assisted in providing the pupils with a wonderful learning environment.”
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