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Northumbria University CCE

Jasper Hijink • 25 April 2023

Northumbria University - City Campus East 1 & 2

Background

The £100 million, award-winning City Campus East development of Northumbria University in Newcastle is the home for the Northumbria Law School (one of the largest law schools in the UK) and the Northumbria School of Design (which covers Industrial, Fashion, Communication and Innovation Design). Its 2 buildings (CCE1 & CCE2) house purpose-built and versatile spaces for conferences, talks, lectures and seminars.

Now a few years into its lifecycle it was due an upgrade of the approximitaly 8,000 fluorescent light fittings and its wired DALI control system.

Challenge

With 8,000 lights over 2 buildings in operation the replacement and commissioning of a complete installation is not a small task. Most of the work has to be completed during nightly hours, and with leaving each morning a building that is ready to accommodate students. The current DALI system and reporting in the BMS was not always delivering on the expectations, so a different approach was needed.

Solution

The Mymesh wireless control system avoids any need for cabling and wired connections to switches or the central control system. The intelligence is distributed in the network, making it a very robust system. All lighting was replaced with DALI LED fittings with Mymesh 'nodes'. Input devices were used to link to the existing 'retractive' switches, allowing the teachers and students to select the scenes needed in the classrooms and lecture theatres.

The default light level is set at 80%, delivering a 20% additional saving to the LED upgrade, while a higher light level can be manually chosen if required. All rooms work on PIRs, so no energy is unnecessarily wasted if a space is unoccupied. The rooms on the window side benefit of day-light-harvesting by dimming the lighting automatically when sufficient natural light comes into the building.

The system is connected to a Lumitel Dashboard, so the Facilities Management company can monitor any failures and the University can follow the energy usage.

Benefits

Each building has 1 large Mymesh wireless mesh network, using only 1 Gateway to connect to the Cloud services. This makes the system very scalable and adaptive for the future.

The energy savings from the LED upgrade are significant, further enhanced by automatic dimming and switching off. Furthermore, the savings can be monitored via real-time reporting.

The maintenance department has a tool for first-time fixing. If any failures occur, the system will inform them what the type of failure is and where, allowing the engineer to go directly to the right location with the right tools and hardware. Typically before the employee or student fully realises.