State-of-the-art automation for SA's largest private hospital

ABB has partnered with Australian intelligent building control integrator mySmart to deliver world-class building automation solutions for the largest KNX healthcare project in the Southern Hemisphere.

Having cared for South Australians for over 120 years, Calvary Adelaide Hospital (CAH) completed building the largest private facility in the state in late 2019. The $345 million 12-storey hospital offers the community a comprehensive range of services including orthopaedic, cardiac, neurosurgical and rehabilitation specialities.

With a floor area of 57,000 m² and five levels of patient wards, the hospital houses Adelaide’s only 24-hour private emergency department and has capacity for 344 overnight beds with 16 operating theatres, a rehabilitation wing with a hydrotherapy pool and a mobility garden. It is also home to a custom-designed Hybrid Theatre, combining an operating theatre and radiology suite to diagnose and treat patients faster.

ABB partnered with mySmart to equip CAH with the latest building automation solution using the ABB i-bus KNX system for all lighting control and monitoring, based on the worldwide KNX standard. The solution provides this critical healthcare facility with intelligent and integrated building control for easier lighting management and increased flexibility, security, economic efficiency and convenience.

Featuring more than 1200 KNX devices, it is the largest KNX Health Care project in the Southern Hemisphere.

Life-saving matters

Many clinicians and worldwide healthcare providers are turning to smart technology as a positive route to provide innovative, cost-effective ways to help reduce and relieve the pressure on personnel and financial resources in health trusts. This comes at a critical time in healthcare provisioning, when global healthcare spending is projected to increase at an annual rate of 4.1% in 2017–2021, up from just 1.3% in 2012–2016¹.

The chosen lighting technology and control systems play a critical role in the cost structure of hospital maintenance given the countless number of lighting points in patient rooms, research facilities, hallways, waiting rooms, laboratories and lobbies — all requiring lighting that best serves their purpose.

For CAH, the ABB i-bus KNX, coupled with DALI (digital addressable lighting interface), gives hospital personnel and maintenance staff full command of the lighting functions. All these functions can be managed automatically according to a schedule, sunset or sunrise, or presence of people, or by the touch of a button. This level of controllable lighting system is key to energy saving, with the additional benefit of increased comfort and safety.

Hospitals always need light — regardless of the time of day or the day of the week — and it must be reliable and well designed to not only guarantee the best conditions for medical and nursing staff, but also provide optimal conditions for the wellbeing of patients.

Technology leadership in health care

The ABB’s i-bus KNX solution integrates the hospital’s lighting and energy metering to interface with the building management system (BMS) and Nurse Call system. This provides lighting automation and control critical for effective lighting, operational efficiency and safety. This interface enables the lighting and heating/cooling systems to work in unison, so as lighting sensors detect the movement of people and turn lights on, it triggers the heating/cooling system to respond accordingly.

An important challenge for hospitals is reducing operational costs without adversely affecting patients. With the implemented solution, customers can realise energy savings of up to 60% of the electrical energy for lighting and significant cost reductions in managing and maintaining the system due to intelligent monitoring.

KNX can result in energy savings of up to:

• 10% in time switched (eg, automatically turn off lights in the evening)
• 20% as a result of presence detection (lights turned on only when person detected)
• 40% in presence and brightness detection (the system detects the level of sunlight to regulate how much lighting is required)
• 50% in constant brightness control (the system maintains a constant level of light based on the level of natural brightness).

The key advantage of ABB’s i-bus KNX solution is the range of features it now successfully integrates and manages. Where KNX might support a simple light dimmer, the ABB solution allows users to set timers and lighting levels, measure the energy being used and perform many other functions. It delivers the full automation concept and is entirely scalable.

Making buildings smarter

ABB’s i-bus KNX allows all devices to communicate with one another via a single bus cable which is installed alongside the normal power lines. This means that all electrical functions are connected with one another via the bus system. For CAH, specific KNX features selected to ensure easier facility management and operational effectiveness and flexibility include:

• Automation and remote access: timed and logical functions, system supervision, internet access, remote programming — all enabling the optimal, energy-efficient interaction of the subsystems such as lighting control and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), which is almost impossible with conventional technology.
• Automated lighting: light scenes, timed control, automatic occupancy detection, constant light control — by automating these functions, the building reacts on changes of the environment automatically and is not reliant on human intervention.
• Energy management: diverse control and interface solutions to reduce building operating costs and to employ the required energy according to demand — bringing the various systems under the ABB i-bus KNX solution and using one common user interface or head end software enables easier maintenance and reduced opex. Also offers ability to provide support and make changes remotely.
• Easy operator uses and visualisation: touch panel and computer display ensuring clear representation of the control processes.

The KNX Protocol has been adopted by Standards Australia as SA/SNZ ISO/IEC TS 14543.3.1-6:2018 Technical Specification meaning it is likely to be supported for years to come.

^{1. Source: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Life-Sciences-Health-Care/gx-lshc-hc-outlook-2018.pdf.}