The flex7 System, a range of lighting connection & control products manufactured by Flex Connectors Limited, was recently installed in the Discovery Centre at Dundee University. The new £26m building includes laboratories, offices and meeting rooms.
The Discovery Centre at Dundee University opted to install the flex7 System as an alternative to the more complex ‘front end systems’ on the campus which were proving both costly and complicated to run.
As the lighting circuits in the building were fed from essential and non-essential distribution boards, flex7 Dual Supply Starter Units were identified as ideal – answering the need to control two independent circuits with a single switching device.
Dual Supply Starter Units are factory configured to suit their particular area of installation. Each one has the required number of outlets shared between the two circuits.
Master & Slave Control Packs were plugged into either side of the Dual Supply Starter Unit and then linked via their network ports with a short plug-in network lead. This allowed a single wall-mounted retractive switch, connected to one of the Control Packs via a plug-in switch drop, for on/off and regulating control of both circuits of luminaires simultaneously whilst operating at Protected Extra Low Voltage.
Occupancy controls were also installed in conjunction with Corridor Hold Units, allowing luminaires in circulation areas to be held on while any adjacent room remained occupied, even if the circulation area was vacant.
flex7 Corridor Hold Units are self-powered and are linked to other Control Packs via plug-in network leads. Each unit can accept inputs from up to eight individual areas, however if more inputs are required units can be linked together to accept signals from more areas.
In many buildings where energy-saving occupancy and absence sensors are installed, corridor lights can go off when the adjacent rooms and areas are still occupied. It is sometimes desirable – for safety or security reasons – for circulation luminaires to be held on until such time as the whole area has been vacated. The Corridor Hold Unit (fch8/2) provides the simplest of solutions to this problem.
