schools & educational facilities

SmartSchool

Educational facilities across North America are suffering the same elevating power rates that all commercial facilities have to endure. School and Campus environments are unlike other facilities; they include laboratories, dormitories, miles of hallways, classrooms, lecture halls, with unmatched variety in space usage over traditional commercial facilities.

Administrators are now looking at any and all alternatives to incorporate automation into the daily operation of campus buildings without disturbing the ongoing activities in the facilities.

Problem 1: How to retrofit buildings without costly and invasive upgrades?

Solution: Retrofitting with wireless automation alleviates installation costs and adds unitary distributed control creating smart spaces that become their own autonomous zones Retrofits can be staged to accommodate schedules, tested for savings performance and deployed without reservation.

Problem 2: Find a true wireless solution; no line voltage, no low voltage, no power wires.

Solution: Echoflex sensors and switches that transmit status and data to receiving controllers use energy harvesting so there are no wires even for power and no batteries means less life cycle cost and lower maintenance burden.

Problem 3: Find a manufacturer that develops embedded distributed control solutions based on this unique wireless technology.

Solution: Echoflex Solutions is a leading developer and manufacturer of wireless and self powered products for the building automation industry. Echoflex has over 100 years in controls development and 14 years in EnOcean specific experience.

 

Campus Hallways – enlighten a 24/7 problem
 
Campus hallways and stairwells are areas typically lit 24/7. Emergency-lighting in every 1 in 4 fixtures provides ample light energy to self -power an  light harvesting occupancy sensor delivering Auto-ON functionality. Embedded lighting circuit controllers with status sharing capability actuate together based on a single sensors occupancy input. Miles upon miles of corridors and stairwells, lit on demand and not on rote.
 
 
 
Dormitory Residences – “open the window, it’s too hot in here”
 
Multiple occupant residences with little or no air-conditioning control filled with students that never learned to turn lights off when exiting a room. Simple energy harvesting wireless devices for entry doors and windows communicate with a thermostat and embedded lighting controller, deactivating the room when everyone’s in class or turning off the AC when the windows open. Tens of Thousands of students , thousands of residences, one simple fix to a big energy problem.
 
 
 
 Classrooms – Multi-use rooms require versatility and innovation
 
Creating the right environment within a classroom is dependent upon the class topic and content for that day. It may be a lecture or an audio/video presentation or an exam; each has unique requirements for lighting. Creating lighting scenes or patterns and recalling them on demand through embedded lighting controls is easy using unique firmware which allows multiple teacher control stations with A/V functionality, daylight harvesting, and occupancy detection complete with quiet time overrides.
Echoflex brings together controls experience with innovative wireless technology producing solutions for today’s commercial facilities, campuses and office buildings.
 
 Echoflex – solutions for SmartSpaces
 
Echoflex creates solutions where the intelligence is located in the controlled space. Only then, by monitoring this space, can automation respond spontaneously to immediate needs. Echoflex products are designed to shut devices off as much as they’re designed to turn them on. Only through integration with the space can automation achieve this level of control with no disruption to human activity. 

 

Laval University -

 Regulvar in Quebec used wireless controls to defeat the high costs of working with a concrete ceiling all the while preserving the existing structure. Using the Regulvar RUBI EnOcean to BacNet gateway, Regulvar was able to deploy 100 self powered wireless thermostats which transmitted through the RUBI to 250 controllers, 100 Echoflex relay's were used to control the lighting in the classrooms and open areas, with 50 self powered, wireless switches and a dozen occupancy sensors also commissioned into the system.

The results have been very good for the project -  less cost of installation, less disruption, and more flexibility for the future.