Western Sydney school installs lighting control solution

Located on 148 hectares in North Parramatta, The King’s School is home to around 1500 students from kindergarten to year 12. In 2014, the school officially opened its $20m Science Learning Centre - a sustainable building that uses lighting control solution to save energy and cut costs.

The centre - known as The Future Project - operates as a learning and research facility with up to 16 full-time academic and industrial research scientists and aims to give students the opportunity to experience science and engineering in a new and exciting way. The school’s students will partner with these scientists for some of their research. The centre also presents students with an opportunity to learn about the design and operation of sustainable buildings as it uses a KNX-based energy control and management solution developed by mySmartCTI, an Australian energy management and control solutions integrator.

Lighting control

The KNX lighting control solution uses local switching points in laboratories and seminar rooms. These points allow users to configure the lights and ceiling fans in these areas to suit their immediate needs, at the touch of a button. Motion sensors are also used in these areas - configured in absence detection mode, automatically turning off all lights and ceiling fans should no movement be detected for 30 minutes.

In smaller rooms such as offices, lighting is totally controlled using motion sensors configured in presence detection mode. Lights will turn on when users enter the room and off again 30 minutes after vacating. External lighting operates using inputs from the KNX Weather Station on the roof of the building. Lights automatically turn on when the ambient light level drops below a preset level.

Facade control

External venetian blinds around the building are controlled using the KNX Weather Station and a sun-tracking algorithm in the Head-End software. When the ambient light exceeds a defined threshold, the blinds will tilt through a range of positions depending on their location on the facade. As a safety precaution, should the wind speed exceed a defined level the blinds are retracted and held in the raised position until the wind reduces.

Metering

Energy meters across each floor of the Science Learning Centre measure both power and instrument values while hydraulic meters measure gas and water as well as alarms on the water retention tanks. All values are communicated to the Head End PC via KNX meter interfaces.

KNX Head End

The KNX Head End PC operates NETx Automation Voyager Server software, which is used to monitor and control the field devices. This includes: monitoring and control of all lighting channels/zones with real-time status and time scheduling; control of external blinds based on sun position with manual override control; MARs module for analysing KNX energy and hydraulic meters; and visual display of KNX metering information on the mySmart enGauge atrium display panel.

Mechanical services are linked to the mySmartCTI KNX Head End PC using a BACnet/IP interface on the KNX IP ethernet backbone. The KNX Head End PC is able to read the current room temperatures and air conditioning run status as well as read and write the room temperature setpoints. The window automation system is also linked to the KNX Control System via a KNX/IP interface enabling the reading of room humidity and system status, and the starting and stopping of the AC. This is particularly important as the control of the AC system is linked to both the status of the window automation system and the presence of people in that room. This shows the true benefit of a KNX-based system, whereby different devices can easily share common infrastructure including switch points, sensors and weather stations with absolute certainty as to their operation and compatibility.