highereducationestates 23 ACCORDING to research commissioned by Universities UK, the British public is not in favour of cutting the number of international students. Sixty-four per cent believe the UK should host the same or more international students and only 9% think that students and researchers should discouraged from coming to the UK. This positivity towards overseas students is no longer entirely shared by the Government, which has just moved to restrict the ability for international students, and their dependents, to come to the UK. In future, all foreign students except for those on PhD courses will be barred from bringing dependants with them to the UK. It’s a response to some international students securing a place on a nine-month masters’ programme or an MBA course as a “backdoor” to obtaining work in the UK and bringing their family with them. Undergraduate foreign students are already barred from bringing dependants with them but the vast majority of international students in the UK are on full-time postgraduate courses. Most come from outside the EU. Modelling conducted by the Home Office is understood to have forecast that a significant factor driving the UK’s increasing immigration figures is growing numbers of family members accompanying overseas students. The UK issued 485,758 study visas to students last year, who brought an additional 135,788 dependants. It meant that 22 per cent of all study-related visas issued last year were to dependants. This compares with 16,047 dependants in 2019, or 6 per cent of the total. Universities will be nervous at the Government’s move to clamp down on international students: in 2020/21, non-EU students contributed 17% of UK universities’ total annual income. The big question now is how many overseas students will be deterred from coming to the UK for postgraduate studies if they have to travel alone. The Government’s dilemma has been that despite the findings of the Universities UK poll, many people in this country are concerned about the high levels of immigration. When they learn that 59,053 Nigerian students brought with them 60,923 family members and 139,539 Indian students brought 38,990 dependants, there is unease. And a political party looking to be re-elected ignores that at its peril. Yet the Government also knows that the intake of international students in the 2021/22 academic year contributed £41.9 billion to the UK economy. We must all hope its move to restrict overseas students does not kill the golden goose. Editor Andrew Pring Sales director Julian Walter Production Nicola Cann Design Sandra Cid Managing director Toby Filby The publishers do not necessarily agree with views expressed by contributors and cannot accept responsibility for claims made by manufacturers and authors, nor do they accept any responsibility for any errors in the subject matter of this publication. Publishers Stable Publishing Limited, SBC House, Restmor Way, Wallington, Surrey SM6 7AH, England. t. 020 8288 1080 f. 020 8288 1099 e. [email protected] leader and content Trying not to kill the golden goose Andrew Pring Editor [email protected] inside this issue M/Jun 2023 28 Protecting lone workers A new app has transformed lone worker safety at the University of Leicester. 29 Integrated and indirect lighting Standard and custom luminaires shine at newly refurbished London Southbank University Hub. 31 Smart lighting delivers many benefits How to create an interoperable environment that delivers truly smart lighting to projects. 32 Keeping energy bills down Reducing unnecessary student usage in summer months. 26 32
Students want a ‘home away from home’ says Walsh STUDENTS want residential accommodation that’s not only comfortable to live in but also offers them a host of familiar facilities and amenities,” says James Walsh, creative director at architects and interior designers Anyo. “This places demands on design standards and savvy architects are finding ways to improve how they plan and create successful projects.” He adds: “Buildings need to feel like a home away from home for students, many of whom are living away from familiar surroundings and learning how to cope on their own for the first time. Ideally, these buildings must strike a balance between privacy and accessibility - a well-designed student hall of residence will make all of the difference to the lives of students, their wellbeing and academic achievement.” Walsh believes that student accommodation lies at the heart of HE academic life. He says: “It can be a catalyst for social interaction and stimulating hubs to expedite new experiences. The better residence halls often include fully-outfitted common rooms where students can eat, relax, and study along with collaboration zones and recreational and sports areas. Moreover, university administrators can leverage well-designed, happy halls as part of their marketing and recruitment plans - when students are considering where to go to university, housing is more often than not a major factor in their final decision, helping them to picture what campus life for them will be like.” Walsh has designed the new Riverside student living in Canterbury in Kent, where partnership has been a key element in successful project delivery. Working with the local council alongside construction engineers Bouygues UK and student housing operators U-Living, Anyo was involved from the master plan stage right the way through to the development of the final MMC build system. Work continues at pace on sustainable construction skills centre WORK on the Sustainable Construction Skills Centre for the University College Birmingham is making excellent progress, with scaffolding due to be removed by contractors GMI in the coming weeks. The Centre, located in the James Cond former printworks in the centre of Birmingham, will be home to the University’s specialist courses in modular methods of construction, retrofit and green technologies from September 2023. The courses will support the region’s growth areas, including sustainable construction methods and renewable energy. Michael Harkin, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of University College Birmingham, said of the site progress: “Having made such a headway with construction, we’re now looking forward to the completion of the site, ready for our first intake of students in September 2023. “This crucial skills centre is part of our wider plans in developing our provision to meet regional skills demands and deliver future industry-ready graduates.” Located in the Jewellery Quarter, the regeneration of the James Cond former printworks will honour the area’s heritage and the historic art deco printworks facility that was originally built in the 1930s. Rosa Wells, Executive Dean of the School of Engineering, Digital and Sustainable Construction said: “It is exciting to see the progress on the Sustainable Construction Skills Centre; the building is being sensitively restored to maintain many of the original features and architecture incorporating innovative retrofit ideas alongside heritage building techniques. “This makes it a unique skills centre for our construction students to learn in - the fabric of the building will naturally create learning opportunities and reinforce the importance of embracing sustainable construction methods.” The regeneration of the Sustainable Construction Skills Centre is part of a £160 million investment in University College Birmingham’s campuses and learning facilities, which includes Camden House and the award-winning McIntyre House and Moss House. “ 24 highereducationestates News
Accommodation redevelopment eases pressure on local housing in Oxford ATIER one contractor has been awarded a £76.5m contract to improve and expand one of Oxford’s student accommodation sites. Morgan Sindall Construction has now completed enabling works at Oxford Brookes University’s Clive Booth Student Village, designed by MICA architects, where it is delivering 515 en-suite rooms and various social spaces across four buildings. The contractor was appointed via the Southern Construction Framework to provide an increased number of high-quality rooms within the University’s estate. With the village located next to the University’s Headington campus and a 20-minute walk from the city centre, it will help to reduce the number of students living in private rented accommodation and support efforts to manage local housing demand. As part of its Intelligent Solutions approach Morgan Sindall Construction has deployed a number of methods to save time, cost and carbon.These includes a rigid inclusions foundations system which negates the need for pile caps, provides greater flexibility to overcome ground conditions and saves cost and carbon by using less concrete than traditional piling systems. In addition, the team also reused the demolition waste from the existing buildings on the site to form the hardcore piling mat. For the first time, the contractor employed Giatec, a wireless concrete sensor for temperature and strength monitoring which is cast directly into the concrete. It enables the team to use a mobile app to track when the concrete has cured in real time, whilst giving them the ability to adapt the concrete mix design and meet the programme curing targets. This has meant being able to use less cement and reduce the carbon impact of the frame. ‘Best in class’ celebrated at AUCSO annual awards THE Association of University Chief Security Officers (AUCSO), the leading organisation for security professionals working in higher and further education around the world, praised its members for “outstanding achievements across the year” when it announced the winners of its Annual Awards 2023. Recognised for their exceptional work were: • Mark Neary, Manchester Metropolitan University, Security Officer of the Year, who was praised by the judges for his “immense bravery” in tackling aggressive persons who were in the process of robbing a retail outlet on campus. • Adrian Dennehy, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Security Manager of the Year, who the judges said “had worked tirelessly to introduce and embed innovative working practice into the Campus Protection Services team whilst raising the profile and importance of Security within the Higher Education sector”. • The D Team – Colchester, University of Essex, Security Team of the Year, which the judges said “showed bravery when dealing with a serious incident in a student accommodation block (which holds 200 students)”. Commenting on the winners, says: AUCSO Chair Oliver Curran said: “We had some truly inspirational nominations across a challenging year for university security teams. The entries demonstrate the range of risks and challenges that our security teams face on a daily basis, as well as the incredibly professional personnel that continually keep their communities safe with their innovative approaches.” AUCSO Chief Operating Officer, Julie Barker, added: “All of the shortlisted entries were very worthy winners showing consistently high levels of professionalism, integrity, dedication, and passion, and they are all a credit to their profession.” Security Manager of the Year, Adrian Dennehy (second from left), worked tirelessly to introduce and embed innovative working practice into the Campus Protection Services team whilst raising the profile and importance of Security within the Higher Education sector. highereducationestates 25 News
Bruce Kennedy, Architect Director at BDP, explains the unique vision for the new Dubai campus of a Scottish University, delivered through effective collaboration between design and client teams spanning two continents FOUNDED in Edinburgh in 1821, Heriot-Watt University is a product of the Scottish Enlightenment that promoted the idea of self-improvement through education. As the world’s first Mechanics Institute, it fed innovation that established the fast-industrialising cities of Scotland as global centres of engineering expertise. Over the next 200 years the university grew, first with new campuses in the far north and the borders of Scotland, before transforming itself into an international provider of higher-education through its expansion into the UAE and Malaysia. As one of the first international universities in Dubai, Heriot-Watt’s success had led it to outgrow its aging campus at Academic City, and the answer was a move to a larger building in the city’s Knowledge Park where 4,000 students from more than 100 countries could benefit from state-of-the-art amenities in a coastal location, connected to the wider city by good public transport. BDP was able to offer the university a concept design, developed in Scotland, combined with local knowledge and delivery that gave the client sponsor in Edinburgh, and the local stakeholders, an interdisciplinary design team capable of realising a class-leading campus that would go on to set a new standard for the UAE. A specific challenge was the need to deliver a unified single-campus spread across seven floors of a generic, existing, shell office building. The architectural concept that led Heriot-Watt to select BDP, emerged from an analysis of the university’s brief and an understanding of the expectations of contemporary middle-eastern education buildings. A number of conventional rooms for teaching as well as research and laboratory spaces were required, combined with a large area for shared facilities that included social study space, cafes, student facilities, and open-plan offices. But the secret to creating a truly connected campus over seven storeys, lay in the way in which BDP manipulated this shared space – creating a learning landscape that came to be known as ‘The Park’. Connecting the design concept to the city that gave birth to the university, BDP conceived the teaching rooms and labs with design inspiration from Edinburgh’s Georgian ‘New Town’ – formal and rational – whilst The Park shared attributes of the medieval ‘Old Town’ whose organic growth was influenced by landscape and topography. In the same way that the dense, informal Old Town’s complex network of streets and vennels led to chance encounters that drove the Scottish Enlightenment, so too would The Park’s informal fusion of study and leisure lead to an exchange of ideas that would cutacross discipline boundaries and build a sense of community within the campus. To support this direction, BDP’s interior design team overlaid the principles of biophilic design, an approach that seeks Heriot-Watt’s Dubai campus raises the bar in UAE to mimic the richness and sensory stimulation of the natural world, rewarding occupants with prospect and discovery as they move through the building. No two floors are the same, but all share a common theme of allusions to nature in their use of materials, colour, texture, pattern and lighting, whilst internal spaces benefit from borrowed views of palm trees or the sparkling waters of the Gulf. Whilst biophillic principles literally shape the layout and character of the accommodation, they also form a link between Dubai and the University’s mother campus at Riccarton Estate on the edge of Edinburgh. Before starting to design, BDP’s Glasgow-based architects and interior designers visited Riccarton, where they were struck by the 18th century designed landscape inherited from a mansion that formerly occupied the site. It was important that the identity and heritage of the University’s Edinburgh roots were tangible at the campus in Dubai - a principle that the client enthusiastically supported. Natural materials, such as slate and timber, are used to recall the Scottish landscape, whilst more overt references exist in elements such as the ten-metre long welcome desk - a sculpted grey monolith inspired by ancient standing stones. On entering the campus, the welcome space contains reception, meeting lounges and lift lobbies encircled by a perforated gold metallic screen suspended from the ceiling. This golden veil is a modern interpretation 26 highereducationestates design solutions
of Mashrabiya screens, used in traditional Arabic buildings to admit air whilst filtering the harsh light of the desert and providing privacy. The pierced pattern of the screen is formed by repeating a motif drawn from Heriot-Watt’s crest and infilled with randomly placed solid elements. This biophilic device was inspired by the effect of dappled sunlight passing through the tree canopy on that initial visit that the design team made to Riccarton - a fusion of Scottish and Arabic heritage, rendered in gleaming gold in deference to the glamour of contemporary Dubai. Abstracted references to the Gulf region’s traditional architecture are also to be found in elements such as the patterned tiles that cover the floors of cafes throughout the campus, and in coloured, perforated felt acoustic screens that hang in academic staff offices - to muffle conversation and retain privacy. Development of an appropriate design for staff areas was a particular concern for the university. Academic staff were initially reluctant to transition from individual cellular offices to open-plan working, in line with university policy. In collaboration with the Vice-principal and estates team, BDP consulted with staff to develop design options that aimed to provide the benefits of a collaborative culture whilst ensuring that focused work could be carried out without distraction. The final design placed individual workstations in small groups, using bespoke furniture, screened with shelving, plants and felt acoustic screens, to create smaller ‘communities’ within the wider open-plan area. Heriot-Watt’s Dubai campus is an exemplar for adaptive reuse of an existing office building that has been transformed from a generic, grey shell space to become a stimulating and engaging campus - a calming green oasis in the arid heat of the Middle East. The result of a collaboration between a visionary client and designers on two continents, the shared biophilic spaces that knit the campus together unite people from different cultural backgrounds to instil a common identity. Celebrating knowledge and heritage through connections to landscape and nature, Heriot-Watt’s Dubai campus is a fitting legacy for a university entering its third century as it continues to spread knowledge and the Scottish Enlightenment. www.bdp.com highereducationestates 27 design solutions
Protecting lone workers Georgina Wilson, Sales Director at Chubb explores the challenges of lone working in the education sector and explains how its new app has transformed lone worker safety at the University of Leicester IN HIGHER education, university staff often remain within a premises or campus long after the students have gone home. Many classrooms – especially mobile ones – can feel isolated from the main building meaning that it is not always possible to know the whereabouts of staff at all times. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, employers are obligated to manage the risks to lone workers. Many universities make use of CCTV systems to spot incidents. However, the use of this technology is only effective if the screens are being regularly monitored. At quieter times of the day, when fewer staff are in the building, this may not be the case, which is why complementing CCTV with other security methods is crucial. The risks lone workers can face include aggression from students, parents or members of the public in areas of the university that are out of sight. Staff can also come across aggression during home visits, which can often pose a greater threat as they occur in unfamiliar surroundings. Although any lone worker can fall sick or injure themselves, campuses are often large, empty places, which means it could take a long time for anyone to notice an absent member of staff. Then there is the need for staff to work in often hard to reach areas, which could be somewhere with poor access or low footfall, such as storage areas. Chubb recently launched a new lone worker app, SafeZone®, designed specifically to help employers manage the safety of lone workers. Workers can swiftly raise an alert for general assistance (help), medical assistance (first aid), or an emergency using one of three buttons. When an alert is raised, the user’s location is shared with operators at Chubb’s 24/7/365 remote monitoring centre in real-time. The operators can then connect directly to emergency services to provide the most appropriate assistance. The University of Leicester was one of the first higher education institutions to trial SafeZone. The university tasked Chubb with improving lone worker safety, particularly in remote areas of the campus, to ease the reliance on security officers for patrolling these locations. SafeZone was installed on staffs’ devices with full connectivity to Chubb’s Alarm Receiving Centre. Additionally, when lone workers required assistance from a colleague, rather than leaving the job at hand to find one, they could simply message for support, leveraging manpower efficiencies, whilst working more safely. Laurence Perkins, Head of Security at the University of Leicester, comments: “Campus security officers today are typically spending more time engaging with students and staff and addressing their concerns. They’re spending less time patrolling empty buildings or closeted away in control rooms. This is good news for everyone, not least for the security officers themselves, because their jobs have become more rewarding and more valued.” SafeZone lets control room teams at the university see the precise location of the person seeking assistance, and it flags up potentially vital information around particular vulnerabilities – for example, highlighting whether the staff member in distress has a disability, or has a personal risk factor. This gives security officers the information they need to respond appropriately, whatever the situation. www.chubb.co.uk/safezone 28 highereducationestates security
Integrated and indirect light enhances refurbished university building ZUMTOBEL together with its sister brand Thorn, both lighting brands of the Zumtobel Group, worked with BDP to deliver a collection of standard and custom luminaires for the newly refurbished London Southbank University Hub (LSBU Hub). The London Southbank University recently embarked on its most extensive and exciting environment transformation programme. Designed to affect how students and staff think, feel and study, the renovated facility is set to revolutionise the student experience. With the modernisation of the learning spaces and technology, the new LSBU Hub will be fit for the future and serve the needs of generations of students, staff and the wider LSBU community. The goal was to create dedicated zones for learning, teaching, and staff by renovating the 1970s building and making better use of its current spaces across the whole campus. The refurbished building includes a new 3,000 sqm library, teaching rooms, offices, lecture theatres, fitness and sports facilities, informal learning spaces, student support and catering facilities. Architect Wilkinson Eyre and BDP’s lighting and building services consultants were quickly appointed. The project team also consisted of Winters Electrical Services and Wilmott Dixon Interiors as the main contractor. To meet the demands of this project, BDP sought a lighting manufacturer with a broad, high-performance range of standard luminaires and the ability to engineer custom luminaires for specialised applications. Zumtobel together with its sister brand Thorn were selected for their technical abilities and all-round product offer. The approach to the lighting design process was to complement the architecture with minimal intervention and ensure bright soffits – particularly in areas where daylight is low. The result is a considered and understated lighting scheme which seeks to reveal the interior forms and finishes at their optimal brightness. Luke Smith-Wightman, design consultant for BDP, explains: “The LSBU Hub project is a refurbishment of a 1970s structure featuring concrete waffle slabs throughout the building. The slabs are exposed in many spaces and now form an integral part of the lighting strategy – in combination with a custom luminaire engineered by Zumtobel - STRATUS. The STRATUS linear suspension luminaire delivers purely indirect, neutral-white light to the slabs from a very slim aluminium profile. This creates an enhanced perception of spaciousness and, through interreflection, provides the required illumination in the spaces where it is used. The lit effect is calm and blends well with daylight, with excellent light uniformity to walls, soffits, and floors.” Ed Haslett, Key Account Manager, Zumtobel Group, adds: “We worked closely with the site team as the coordination of the multiple lengths and runs required a combined effort to ensure we delivered the perfect solution.” In addition to STRATUS, the comprehensive scheme includes Zumtobel’s PANOS infinity downlights, SLOTLIGHT infinity slim continuous rows and the striking ONDARIA pendants in the breakout areas and meeting rooms. Luke explains: “The theme of linear lighting is continued with integrated SLOTLIGHT infinity slim continuous lines of light framing the library spaces, the main atrium and lighting the bookshelves. PANOS infinity downlights project warmwhite light into the library areas, illuminating the spaces without disrupting the bold, wood-clad geometry of the library ceilings.” PERLUCE luminaires light the stairways and TUBILUX lights the fitness suite. RESCLITE PRO provides emergency lighting, while Thorn’s Omega Pro2 has been used for the lecture halls and Aquaforce in the back-of-house and plant areas. www.thornlighting.co.uk highereducationestates 29 lighting
PrefectControls.com THIS IS BEYOND YOUR CONTROL Central control Local control * Savings are dependent on current control methods, infrastructure, location and profiles adopted. Prefect products are designed specifically for accommodation where the room occupant is not directly responsible for paying the heating bills. Tamper-proof, robust and always striving to use less energy, our systems will improve your energy management and efficiency. CENTRAL CONTROL All ecostat2 features + Secure portal access + Humidity + Light + Sound pressure + CO2 +Water heating + Leak detection • up to 40% savings* LOCAL CONTROL • Room temperature • Setback, Boost & Frost • User adjustment • Open window • Absense detection • Tamper-proof • Programmable • Electric or wet systems • up to 30% savings* Scan for product comparison * Savings are dependent on current control methods, infrastructure, location and profiles adopted. Prefect products are designed specifically for accommodation where the room occupant is not directly responsible for paying the heating bills. Tamper-proof, robust and always striving to use less energy, our systems will improve your energy management and efficiency. CENTRAL CONTROL All ecostat2 features + Secure portal access + Humidity + Light + Sound pressure + CO2 +Water heating + Leak detection • up to 40% savings LOCAL CONTROL • Room temperature • Setback, Boost & Frost • User adjustment • Open window • Absense detection • Tamper-proof • Programmable • Electric or wet systems • up to 30% savings* Scan for product comparison
Smart lighting delivers a range of benefits James Foster, OCTO National Sales Manager for Ansell Lighting, looks at how to create an interoperable environment that delivers truly smart lighting to projects SMART lighting systems have delivered huge benefits to organisations since their creation and are, importantly, having a huge impact on the reduction of energy bills and carbon emissions across all sectors. Suitable for both internal and external lighting circuits, smart lighting can be used to control illumination in all spaces including classrooms, lecture theatres, administrative areas, playgrounds, car parks and sports facilities. Responsive and adjustable, the automated technology ensures that lighting is used only where and when it is needed, reducing wasted energy use and its associated financial and environmental costs. Smart lighting can also have a huge impact on student wellbeing, creativity and alertness. For example, lighting hues can be pre-set to support individuals to perform at their best, moving from a cooler lighting temperature which helps student feel alert, productive and focussed, to a warmer hue to promote creativity. Something that is a huge benefit for facilities managers and other individuals concerned with the running of educational buildings is that smart technology is also hugely measurable. Recent advances in equipment mean that many smart lighting solutions now come with dashboard controls which can accurately measure lighting energy usage in real time, giving a clear view of lighting-based energy consumption data across one building or an entire portfolio. This allows usage to be accurately evaluated and opportunities to reduce unnecessary use to be identified. The benefits of smart lighting system are boundless but if a system is to be truly efficient and long-lasting achieving interoperability is key. This means creating an environment where systems and devices, produced by different manufacturers, use common communication protocols to work together seamlessly to deliver a truly smart, lighting scheme. One such standard is the Zigbee wireless protocol. Widely used in smart home and building automation systems, Zigbee is a low-power wireless protocol that is designed to be interoperable across different devices and systems. It operates on the 2.4 GHz frequency band and can support up to 65,000 devices on a single network. Another popular wireless protocol is Bluetooth mesh, which is designed specifically for the Internet of Things (IoT). Bluetooth mesh operates on the same 2.4 GHz frequency band as Zigbee and can support up to 32,000 devices on a single network. Bluetooth mesh is particularly well-suited for lighting applications, as it offers low latency and high reliability. In addition to wireless protocols, smart lighting systems can also use sensors and triggers to achieve interoperability. Sensors can detect changes in the environment, such as occupancy or ambient light levels, and trigger actions such as turning lights on or off. Triggers can be used to initiate actions based on specific events, such as a door opening, or a motion sensor being triggered. Using cloud-based services is another approach that can be considered to help manage and control different devices and systems. Cloud-based services can provide a central point of control for multiple devices and systems, making it easier to achieve interoperability. Whatever technology is selected, achieving interoperability in smart lighting requires a collaborative approach between all stakeholders involved in the design and use of the building. Specifying a truly interoperable system from the start will ensure that its benefits are harnessed for the long-term future. www:ansell-lighting.com/en highereducationestates 31 lighting
Keeping the energy bills down in student accommodation Adrian Barber of Prefect Controls explains how to reduce unnecessary energy use in the summer months IT TAKES a lot of energy to maintain comfortable environments for the millions of student rooms across the country and there’s great pressure on providers to meet net-zero and decarbonisation targets is immense. The “burning issue” is that generally, the people consuming the energy are not directly responsible for paying the bill. For energy managers this is frustrating, to say the least. The budget for energy use is their responsibility but they have no control over consumption. I was particularly excited a few weeks ago, when a customer, the University of West England, shared with me data showing energy use from 2017 up to present day. It was interesting because UWE had installed a Building Energy Management System during the pandemic. The reason for my excitement is that it showed ‘before and after data’ which is very difficult to come by as a third party. The figures told a predictable story of month-on-month energy savings. But I took a three-year average consumption, 2017-2019, to mitigate for unusual weather peaks and troughs, then compared this with 2022, (ignoring 2021 as it was disrupted by lockdowns and unusual occupancy patterns). The total reduction is 22%. Pre-installation 2018/19 the heating of rooms across the site consumed almost 4.1Million kWh of electricity. The same period 2022/23 saw this reduced to just over 3.2Million kWh – a 22% reduction. With increased energy costs, this demonstrates a comparative saving of over £106K per year. Project this forward to the coming year, with a tariff of 16.5 pence per kWh, and this amounts to £147,819. The surprising element that emerged from this complete dataset was what happened in the non-heating season, specifically May through August. During this four-month period, the weather is warmer, and less heating is required. The occupation of rooms is greatly reduced due to the summer holidays and a lot of rooms being empty for most of JuneSeptember. A reduction in use of 67,779kWh was recorded, which at our customers current tariff amounts to just over £11,000. University of the West of England (UWE) installed Prefect’s Irus system throughout its 1900+ rooms at the Frenchay Campus in Bristol three years ago, replacing local controls that had been in place since Prefect installed them when the site was built in 2006. Melissa Clarke, Energy Projects Manager, was tasked with delivering the new system. She comments: “The installation went surprisingly well, considering the circumstances of working around lockdowns and ensuring the safety of any students on site and the contractors”. The Irus system works on the basis that the Setback temperature maintains a comfortable environment while occupants are in their room. But, when the room is vacant or windows are opened, heat input is reduced. Students can boost their room’s temperature, but the profiles, that are set via the internet portal, will return the room to the Setback temperature after a pre-determined time. This ensures the thermostat cannot be turned to ‘max’ and left there all term! Melissa concludes: “We are very happy with the results we are seeing here and are extending the system into a new development that is currently under construction. The use of Mains Borne Signalling for communication between the room control units and the portal means it is very easy and cost-effective to add rooms without the expense of extensive data cabling. The system simply uses the Earth and Neutral of the existing electrical wiring to transmit data.” While most attention is rightly focussed on the autumn and winter seasons, it pays dividends to be aware of unnecessary energy use during warmer months. Having a centrally controlled system that is easy to universally adjust, summer profiles can be tweaked, resulting in even greater savings. www.prefectcontrols.com 32 highereducationestates energy
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