Schneider leads the way

Located in Leyland near Preston and part of the Lancashire Local Education Authority, Runshaw College serves the local area providing 6^th form and further education courses. The college has a well deserved reputation for developing the full potential of students and has recently won an outstanding inspection report from Ofsted and a Learning & Skills Beacon award for excellence.

This same ethos is extended to ensuring that college resources, equipment and building facilities are modern and efficient. Leading by example, the college exhibited its positive environmental approach by reducing its energy consumption, with the installation of the advanced Schneider Electric’s Clipsal C-Bus lighting control system.

A local contractor, Nortec Electrical Services, was appointed to carry out the college application in conjunction with the system integrator, Integrated Control Ltd.

The Clipsal C-Bus product range from Schneider Electric was selected for its ability to control and automate any type of electrical load. With products catering for any type or size of system ranging from homes to large scale commercial applications, power and lighting control, dimming and energy management, Clipsal C-Bus provides a flexible solution for managing energy consumption. To ensure fast and reliable operation each device has its own inbuilt microprocessor, which can be individually programmed using PC based software or directly via the ‘learn mode’ devices.

The Clipsal C Bus system installed at Runshaw College includes the Schedule Plus software package; a powerful software application that provides a simple-to-use yet powerful graphical interface from C-Bus to a personal computer. Using Schedule Plus in conjunction with PIR motion detectors and PEC (Photo Electric Cell) it is possible to automate the lighting control system, providing centralised, real-time management of the building’s electrical services. It allows the user to create and run scheduled scenarios following a set routine, such as the college timetable and at the same time respond to triggered events or interfaced sensors.

To further enhance the energy saving concept, Schneider Electric’s PowerLogic smart meters have also been specified and integrated into the Clipsal C-bus system. This allows the facility manager to check the ‘live’ status of energy consumption, as well as use a web server to collate the information on a weekly basis in the form of a CSV file. This gives detailed reports allowing the facilities manager to interrogate the information to identify any unnecessary energy used.

To date, five of the buildings on the campus have benefited from the installed system, with a further six facilities on the site scheduled for upgrade.