Meshing emergency lighting system
for failing Nickel Cadmium fittings
Background - New state-of-the-art research facilities
Since 1998, the Perkins has grown to become one of the nation’s leading adult medical research centres, where a close-knit team of more than 250 work together to defeat the major diseases that impact our community. Whilst Perkins conduct research into a range of diseases, their focus is on Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer & Diabetes.
With two new state-of-the-art research facilities (Perkins North & South), co-located with the major teaching hospitals, the Perkins is creating a culture of innovation and collaboration to deliver better patient outcomes faster. Perkins North is an 11-storey building located at the QEII Medical Centre, Nedlands which houses Perkins research laboratories that investigate a range of diseases including cancer, leukaemia, diabetes and melanoma.
Perkins South is a 6-storey building located on the Fiona Stanley Hospital Campus at Murdoch. The facility can accommodate up to 363 research and academic staff.
When the facilities management team at Perkins approached Clevertronics for a compliant solution to their emergency lighting system in both buildings, the Clevertronics team valued the opportunity to assist with their needs.
Listed below are some emergency lighting facts associated with Perkins
North & South Buildings:
North Building 175 x Exit Lights, 483 x Emergency Lights
Total: 658 x Emergency & Exit Lights
South Building:
61 x Exit Lights, 262 x Emergency Lights
Total: 323 x Emergency & Exit Lights
The Challenge - High failure Nickel Cadmium fittings
The maintenance of the competitor Nickel Cadmium fittings was a constant challenge due to the high failure rate of batteries, poor communications to the fittings and no local technical support. Therefore, it was essential to address these concerns and the Zoneworks system delivered with L10 Lithium Nanophosphate batteries, a system that meshes between fittings, meaning stronger communications paths to fittings and full local product support in Perth.
Also, Perkins was looking to have a system that required lower maintenance intervals and an automatic testing and monitoring system that was easy to manage and provided the lowest cost of ownership solution.
Jeff Staltari from Clevertronics was involved in the project and commented on the project. “The key function of Emergency lighting is to save lives, and when fittings have a limited life due to inferior battery technology the compliance of the system is a constant challenge. Perkins needed to reduce the maintenance intervals and have a testing and monitoring system that could provide compliance test results without interruption to the everyday operation of the research facilities.”
The Solution - Meshing emergency lighting system
After careful consideration, a decision was made to fully upgrade both the North and South facilities with L10 Nanophosphate fittings with Zoneworks XT as the testing and monitoring system.
Steven Frost, senior facility engineer for Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research commented on the upgrade. ‘Our main reason for choosing the Clevertronics solution was due to the system being modular, which means we can replace failed components as needed. The previously installed system required the entire unit to be replaced, which was not only costly but did not fit within our environmental policy. With the existing systems Nickel Cadmium batteries failing and maintenance costs increasing, it made sense to replace the entire system at this point with the L10 Lithium Nanophosphate and Zoneworks XT system’.
