Lighting controls for cutting-edge cancer unit

The Montgomery Unit at RJAH treats patients with bone and soft tissue sarcomas, bone metastases, benign bone and soft tissue tumours and tumour-like conditions. It is one of only five bone cancer centres in the UK and was launched as part of the £15.1m Theatre and Ward Development in August 2016.

To maximise its energy efficiency, the unit uses a variety of CP Electronics’ lighting control solutions across the whole building. This includes Vitesse Plus, along with passive infrared (PIR) and microwave presence detectors, across the corridors and patient wards.

For patients and hospital staff, CP’s lighting control system provides easy, simple intuitive lighting controls and can provide manual scene setting within wards.

These controls prevent unnecessary lighting usage and will therefore assist the unit with vital energy savings. Vitesse Plus includes pre-programmed lighting configurations, making installation simpler too. The presence detectors will control light levels in corridors based on occupancy, gradually dimming or increasing the lights based on natural light levels and switching the lights off after a set time.

As a mixed-use building that operates 24 hours a day, the Montgomery Unit needs lighting to reflect the diversity of staff and patient activity. CP Electronics worked closely with the main contractor Briggs and Forrester to devise a system that would intelligently light each area, dependant on its function, maximising the unit’s energy savings.

Alun Bunday, Healthcare Team Leader at Briggs and Forrester, said: “As only the fifth specialist bone cancer centre in the UK, the Montgomery Unit is expected to be busy and will serve many people daily. To this end, we prioritised the design around patient comfort, and making the unit as cost-efficient as possible. CP Electronics came in, analysed the building usage and recommended its standalone Vitesse Plus lighting control system. By utilising lighting control in corridors and patient wards, this ensures lighting wastage is kept to a minimum.”

Vitesse Plus, which has been installed throughout the Montgomery unit, uses a full seven channel lighting control system that can perform different lighting functions. Each channel controls the detectors based on pre-set configurations.

As well as energy savings, CP’s lighting control systems are also wired to prevent the lights from going off in the event of a fault. The Montgomery Unit’s lighting is supplied through two different incoming power supplies; essential and non-essential lighting.

Enabling this functionality is CP Electronics’ Vitesse Plus Lighting Control Modules (LCM). The LCMs allow lighting detectors to be supplied from the two different power supplies. This results in two LCMs feeding the controls to the lighting to each room or area, but only a common detector to each LCM.

In addition to the detectors operating from two LCMs, the switches also operate both LCMs in the event of failure. This doubles up against fault protection and is just as important for the hospital in maintaining its lighting is always working.

For areas where lighting is not always required, such as common areas and corridors, CP’s advanced presence detectors will provide lighting ‘on demand.’ These devices sense movement in the detection zones, and then activate the lighting accordingly.

Providing this detection includes CP’s MWS3A Adjustable Head Microwave Detectors. The adjustable head and detection sensitivity on this device provides a long detection range of up to 30m.

Paul Chesworth, Northern Regional Sales Manager for CP Electronics, explained: “As we know, hospitals are busy facilities, and any downtime can cost dearly. It was an imperative part of the specification that the lighting should not fail, be easy to manage and maintain, as well as save energy and cost where possible. With our Vitesse Plus lighting control system, we’ve ensured that the Montgomery Unit has met these conditions, and that the patients and staff have the best possible lighting control where needed.”

Briggs and Forrester has a longstanding relationship with CP Electronics, and has often used CP’s intelligent lighting solutions on a variety of different projects.

Bunday added: “CP Electronics has always been a trusted supplier to Briggs and Forrester, thanks to its in-depth knowledge of lighting controls, excellent customer service and support when required. On this project, we were impressed with CP’s consultative approach. They worked with us on a room-by-room scenario and spent a lot of time understanding the unit’s needs before recommending and designing the system, so that we got the best solution for the hospital.”