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Bringing Light to Life in the “World’s Most Sustainable Office Building”.

February 6, 2019

Given the knowledge of the environmental impact of poor sustainability within the architectural process of new office buildings, the role of sustainable design has become ever more important in the design stage; and this is no exception for Bloomberg’s new European Headquarters.

The most widely used and well-established third-party evaluation scheme for office sustainability is the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM). Little over one year ago when Bloomberg UK’s new European office opened, it had done so with an 98.5% score across all BREEAM credits; indicating that it may well be the “World’s most sustainable building”.

So how did Bloomberg’s European Headquarters become the greenest office building in the world? One word – innovation. Norman Foster’s design boasted the use of Smart Airflow, Water Conservation and a reduced-emissions Combined Heat & Power generation, which all factor into the final score. However, one inescapable design choice to notice when you walk into the building itself is the integrated ceiling panels.

 

The interior of Bloomberg’s HQ in London

 

The site, which is over 100,000m2, incorporates over 500,000 LED luminaires, and uses 40 percent less energy than a typical fluorescent office lighting system. This impressive accomplishment is controlled by the DALI protocol.

DALI is an established open lighting control procedure, allowing complete digital control from 0-100% of lighting output level and giving comprehensive feedback on luminaire and control gear faults within the structure itself. Coupled with an intelligent lighting control system such as Simmtronic SPECS3, this is just the type of innovative design techniques used by Bloomberg UK to drastically reduce their energy consumption.

One such member of the SPECS3 collection that was utilised well by Bloomberg UK was a particularly localised presence control system. This consisted of over 200 presence detectors throughout the building, with each sensor only affecting the lighting panels for that contained area. This, of course, means that less populated areas of the building will not be lit, saving on energy expenses, but also has wider implications when we account for the role of BACnet.

The integration of the Lighting Control System with the Building Management System over BACnet was essential in creating a sustainable design. This means that other building systems can account for information gathered from Simmtronic devices to use their energy more efficiently. For example, a SPECS3 presence detector can give feedback to the heating and air conditioning system to stop unnecessarily controlling temperature within unpopulated areas of the office.

This is one example of the use of “Big Data”, whereby all information within the building is rooted back to a central system, and hence can be measured within the building control system itself. Simmtronic’s system adds to Bloomberg’s “Smart” building status by providing a secure, reliable and tested user interface that allows for detailed analysis of the lighting system’s usage.

Some additional energy saving measures of Bloomberg’s Lighting Control System include:

  • An Astronomical Timeclock control for automated seasonal control of the façade feature lighting
  • Utilising “cascaded presence” control along the corridor routes; whereby the Simmtronic system will only turn on lighting for the exit routes based on the area you have been working in.

There is no doubt that Lighting Controls have had a substantial effect in the impressive feats of Bloomberg HQ, and should be an inspiration for future office building design.

 

Interested in any of the Lighting Control features you’ve read about?

Contact sales@simmtronic.com, and have one of our Sales Engineers work with you directly.

Thank you Simmtronic, for your professional, fast and reactive support with the delivery of these projects.

Adam Scadding

EDDS Limited

Simmtronic have delivered a large number of technically challenging projects for DBS and consistently continued to provide outstanding service. Their support, guidance and help throughout the process has been exceptional, working closely with our design teams to ensure the right solution for the project and a sound understanding of the brief, with our delivery teams to ensure the installation and commissioning are trouble free and then providing fantastic after care to the customer. They have added true engineered value into the projects they have been involved in for Derry Building Services.

Geoff Caborn

Derry Building Services

Simmtronic have been a valued member of the DBS supply chain for over 10 years. Their pro-active and collaborative approach to lighting controls from the design stage, through to commissioning is highly valued by both our Design and Delivery Engineers.

Matt Hallam

Derry Building Services

Over the years I have really appreciated the Simmtronic ability to provide responsive support and listening to projects and clients needs. More recently the Simmtronic team has shown the capability to embrace the connectivity requirements of the Internet of Things by quickly adding MQTT to their range of integration protocols. This will greatly facilitate telemetry applications in buildings and the development of interconnected solutions that will make buildings more usable and easier to operate.

Francesco Anselmo

Arup

Landsec have consistently used Simmtronic Lighting Control Systems across our new London developments for over 15 years. Simmtronic understand our requirements and get involved at the very early stages of schemes, assisting consultants in achieving the optimum design solution, often taking the lead.  They always overcome the programme challenges they are faced with on site, delivering a quality, fully tested and operational solution, on time and to budget. Simmtronic undertake the maintenance and servicing across much of our London portfolio, they have a customer focused and flexible approach that suits the needs of our business and as well as our customers.

Mark Ponzini

LandSec

Simmtronic as an organisation has been, for the last 18 years, by far the best performing and most reliable lighting control system I use. From design through to commissioning and soft landings with the landlord teams Simmtronic always deliver on my projects. Simmtronic technology evolution is not just pushed through like others, but rather properly tested internally first, giving us as client teams the assurance that what Simmtronic say they can offer is 100% delivered, an absolute must with fast track major projects.

Alan Williamson

Multiplex

Simmtronic has constantly been available at an early stage to engage both with the designers and the Contracting team to assist with design solutions and to test options. This ultimately assists us in de-risking the project during the commissioning phase which usually defines when the project is completed. Simmtronic is seen as ‘industry standard’ and it is always encouraging to see them involved.

Jo Benson

Derwent London