The New Lighting of Valteri School Ruskis

Senate Properties Makes the Service Provider Deliver Quality

Lighting plays a major role at Valteri School Ruskis, where many of the students have problems with vision. For safety reasons, both brightness and contrasts are needed and the lighting needs to be glare- and flicker free as well as adjustable for individual needs. In this story, we explain how we met the challenging needs of Valteri School Ruskis by designing a customised lighting solution that improves safety and comfort and supports the learning and rehabilitation of students during school days.

The school lighting was realised with Senate Properties’ new purchasing model for housing technologies. The idea of the model is as follows: The procurer only pays for lighting that functions as agreed. The lighting solution provider, on the other hand, promises to deliver high-quality lighting as service throughout the entire contract period. Read how the Lighting as a Service -concept has worked in practice and what kind of added value it brings to the customer and Senate Properties.

In the Hopes of Safe, Comfortable and Adjustable School Lighting

Helsinki-based Valteri School Ruskis operates in connection with each unit of the Valteri Centre for Learning and Consulting. The school provides student places for children and young people in need of special support as well as a possibility to study and receive rehabilitation to support learning during the school day.

Many of the children and young people among the students have challenges and problems with vision. Lighting, therefore, has a major impact on both the learning as well as the general safety of the school.

Before the lighting renewal, the general illumination of the school was weak and the lighting levels of the premises were low. The lighting was also causing excessive costs because it was often on in places where the light was not needed.  Moreover, lighting maintenance was hard because the premises have high ceilings and the lighting points are difficult to access. The personnel of Valteri School Ruskis asked Senate Properties for an adjustable lighting solution that would improve the safety and comfort of the school.

A Customised Lighting Solution

Senate Properties chose Greenled as the lighting solution provider for Valteri School Ruskis. The lighting solution was delivered as a turnkey service including lighting design, installation and maintenance.

The school lighting of Valteri School Ruskis was designed to meet the special demands of the students:

• The safety of the aisles and lobbies was improved by significantly increasing the light output and light levels
• Contrasts were used to facilitate the student’s challenges with vision
• Excessive brightness was avoided by using dimmable lighting with large, non-glare surfaces
• Flicker and glare were avoided with high-quality luminaires and optics solutions
• The luminaires were connected to a smart lighting control system that allows the adjustment of lighting based on zones and the individual needs of the students

Image: The occupancy control of the school aisles automatically increases the light levels when someone approaches. This way, the children are safer moving around the school.

“It was great to have professionals design the lighting. The impacts are obvious; the new lighting improves comfort and safety, which is extremely important in our school. Now we can clearly see what we are doing and the children are safer moving around the school. On dark seasons, we also feel more energetic when there’s enough light.”

Helena Pekkarinen, Services Supervisor, Valteri School Ruskis

The lighting of Valteri School Ruskis is controlled with the ENCELIUM^TM light management system. With the ENCELIUM^TM system, the lighting levels of the school are adjusted and altered based on zones and the individual needs of the students using time scheduling, occupancy control and different lighting situations.

The lighting of the lobbies is programmed to follow a time schedule that automatically adjusts the lighting to fit the use of the premises. Additionally, the school is equipped with presence detectors that further improve the energy-efficiency of the 10 000 m2 sized building.

The occupancy control of the school aisles functions in a predictive way so that the light levels are increased when someone approaches. The improvement in light levels is significant, since mere the maintenance levels of the current lighting equal the former light levels of the school. Thanks to occupancy control, lighting is only on at full power where and when necessary. As a result, energy savings are increased and safety is improved. Moreover, the students experience how the school cares about energy consumption and sustainable development.

Image: Even if energy savings aren’t the primary goal of the lighting renewal, savings are bound to be generated by smart LED technology. The reports of the ENCELIUM™ light management system showcase that the new lighting solution at Valteri School Ruskis saves 74,51 % in energy costs compared to the previous lighting. The reports show in detail the proportion of each energy saving strategy. Task tuning (TT) saves 45,25 % of energy, Time scheduling (TS) saves 16,03 % of energy and Occupancy control (OCS) saves 13,23 % of energy. Daylight harvesting (DLHV) may be added later as soon as the renovation of the school’s facade is completed. The ENCELIUM reports also showcase the proportion of Load shedding (LS) for energy savings.

Based on new needs and the wishes of the personnel, the lighting of the school has been further adjusted even after the installation. Flexible lighting control has enabled, among other things, customised lighting situations for students with epilepsy. In these parts of the premises, the lighting is adjusted to a four-stage program with lighting levels optimised to the demands of the disorder.

Image: The ENCELIUM™ system offers a three-dimensional graphical overview of Valteri School Ruskis. Through the 3D-view, the lighting of each space and each individual luminaire may be flexibly adjusted and altered based on the needs. New spaces and new luminaires may be added to the plan at any point

School Lighting Supports Learning

Greenled installed a new lighting solution to all of the aisles and lobbies of the school on five different floors. Since then, the co-operation has continued by illuminating one of the classrooms with adjustable lighting technology. The users of the classroom are able to tune the lighting based on the learning situation and the individual needs of the students. The school personnel are hoping for all of the classrooms and school premises to have the new lighting solution.

“Learning environment has such a big significance in practising daily living skills. The users of the classroom have been really happy with the new lighting solution that adjusts based on the individual needs of each student. In therapy sessions, we can dim the lighting. When we practice reading and need to see accurately, we brighten the luminaires.”

Helena Pekkarinen, Services Supervisor, Valteri School Ruskis

Image: Lighting is an important part of an effective learning environment. The lighting of this classroom adjusts based on the learning situation and the individual needs of the students.

Quality Lighting as a Service: Here’s How the purchasing Model Works in Practice

The school lighting was realised with Senate Properties’ new purchasing model for housing technologies. On top of the lighting installation, the agreement includes continuous lighting maintenance and monitoring by the service provider.

With the agreement, both parties are committed to high-quality, lighting as a service solution. As long as everything works as agreed, Senate Properties pays Greenled a monthly fee over the seven-year contract period.

Image: Starting from the handover on the 11th of September in 2018, this bar chart illustrates the number of notifications and alarms in the remote control of the ENCELIUM™ light management system of Valteri School Ruskis. The alarms in September were caused by old lighting controls that are a very typical challenge in retrofitted buildings. Thanks to automatic data, these kinds of anomalies are instantly detected, which prevents them from causing any problems in the future. As the image shows, the alarms have decreased significantly since September. In November, the system detected one ballast failure that was immediately repaired. As agreed, the installation and commissioning team of Greenled checks up all of the notifications and alarms and takes care of any repairments or adjustments needed.

Thanks to the lighting as a service concept and the remote control of the lighting installation, Senate Properties and the customer can count on getting high-quality service and none of their own resources is spent on lighting maintenance. If there are any shortcomings in the lighting, The ENCELIUM system automatically notifies Greenled who reports Senate Properties about the alarms and the repair schedule.

“Greenled offered us a service where the level of information security was convincing. The remote-control connection of the service is completely secured and unattached, and we restrict the licences with both passwords and physical keys. The whole service is well controlled and the control over the lighting alterations stays at our end.”

Antti Kuronen, Electrical Advisor, Senate Properties

The Benefits of the New Lighting Solution for Valteri School Ruskis and Senate Properties

• A customised lighting solution that improves the safety and comfort of the school and supports the learning of students during school days
• An environmentally friendly lighting technology that saves 75 % of energy compared to the previous lighting and produces 14 tons less CO² waste per year
• A flexible lighting solution with the ability to adjust the lighting based on zones and the individual needs of the students
• An agreement including maintenance and remote control of the lighting installation, which frees up the customer’s and Senate Properties’ resources from lighting maintenance
• A turnkey service where the procurer only pays for lighting that works as agreed