Healthcare
Operating a Healthy Economy
Safety
Safety is, obviously, of the utmost importance in a hospital environment and an EnTech KNX installation can fulfil all the complex requirements demanded of a hospital thereby allowing administration departments to concentrate on the welfare of the patients and staff. In order to prevent damage rather than having to pay to repair it KNX can ensure that adequate lighting is always there when needed by the use of motion sensors both inside or outside the building in walkways and car parks. Building damage caused by having windows or doors left open can be avoided by an 'open window' or 'open door' indicator on the control panel. Electrical equipment in patient lounge areas can also be turned off centrally at the press of a single button when the room is unoccupied.
In the event of danger, emergency and escape route lighting is activated guiding everyone safely out of the building and the site of the danger can be pinpointed with visualisation that shows the location of the danger. Areas that are unoccupied at night can also be monitored through the network from another site; again reducing staff overheads. In the case of fire a response can be made automatically at the place of the danger and electrical consumers are switched off before becoming a risk, the lighting system is switched on, blinds are raised to allow escape if necessary and doors are unlocked thereby ensuring that everyone has a route to safety.
Comfort
On a more day to day basis KNX can control light and shade allowing available daylight to be used without glare and reducing energy wastage due to having the lights on and the blinds drawn, light regulators are installed which can be adjusted manually to suit the needs of the patients. In areas where the lights are not required to be on all the time, i.e. corridors, restrooms or lounges, presence detectors can control lighting outside main usage times and also during main usage times when the areas are unoccupied. Likewise the temperature of individual rooms can also be monitored and controlled – again by the use of presence sensors or manually. Open windows will automatically trigger the heating to fall to frost protection level and cooling and ventilation are either reduced or deactivated altogether.
For patients with limited mobility all room functions can be adjusted by illuminated pushbuttons, clearly labelled with symbols and those who need assistance in the bathroom can raise the alarm simply and quickly by pulling the pushbutton with pull actuation. Bathrooms can also be fitted with lighting and extraction systems that, again, are presence activated.
Security
With KNX building maintenance staff can be confident that the whole building is safe, secure and maintained correctly. EnTech can provide a building control system that allows the building management to spread across several parts of a building or buildings so that several hospitals can be centrally monitored. For all faults such as light fittings, pipe fractures, flooding and breakages, reports are relayed swiftly and securely to the maintenance office where the appropriate member of staff can attend and effect the necessary repairs.
The intelligence of the system is demonstrated by the fact that all the appropriate requirements for all the public areas of the hospital are fulfilled whilst energy and staffing costs are reduced.