Royal Prince Alfred Hospital – Lighting Upgrade
This project focused on a complete changeover of over 23,000 light fittings across 16 buildings in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, including areas such as offices, clinical rooms, wards, laboratories, emergency department areas,
ICU areas, XRAY rooms, conference rooms, auditoriums, etc. Lighting types varied from troffers in grid ceilings to surface mounted battens, as well as thousands of down lights in plaster ceilings.
Ryan Wilks was required to provide a lighting survey prior to actual installation, to ensure the new light fittings were compatible with the existing fittings in terms of their cut out sizes, wattages, lumens and the emergency functionality with the Nexus monitoring system. High levels of communication were applied between ourselves and RPA Hospital. We had to provide an LED sample for the RPA team to review and approve prior to any installation works.
Along with a lighting upgrade from fluorescent / incandescent / halogen lamps to energy efficient LED luminaires, Ryan Wilks had to provide energy saving evidence in accordance with the NSW Energy Saving Scheme, which generates financial and environmental benefits for the hospital community.
The majority of the works associated with this project were carried out during normal hours even though we encountered lots of access difficulties, especially in critical wards, medical records and the emergency department. Frequent and effective communication was utilised to ensure a smooth installation process. The project team specifically developed an installation strategy where reflected ceiling plans were utilised to mark up lights installed on a daily basis. Updated plans were discussed at the end of each day to identify the locations of each restricted area. This methodology was effective as it thoroughly considered lighting locations in a detailed floor-to-floor, room-to-room way, and it allowed our site supervisor adequate time to communicate with those departments and gain approvals prior to installation.
Another highlight is the dimmed lighting installation that took place in Kerry Packer Auditorium, where we overcame the LED compatibility issue with the existing dimming system. In order to ensure the dimming transition between 0 and 100% could be as smooth as possible without flickering, we decided that the dimming driver needed to operating on both leading and trailing edge LED dimmers. Not designed to run on transformers, the LED lamps we selected were designed to easily connect to a constant current specific wattage sized driver, with very few electrical components crammed into the socket base or heat sink column. With universal dimmer controller switches installed, the new DC lamps could easily be dimmed provided they were connected to a smart dimmable constant current driver.
Throughout the project, we worked closely with National Carbon Bank of Australia, an Accredited Certificate Provider (ACP) under the accreditation in the NSW Energy Savings Scheme, to ensure all energy saving evidence from pre-installation and post-installation was collected and reviewed for rebate and certification purposes. The innovative LED lighting options have allowed long-term energy reductions after a projected estimate in accordance with the deemed factors outlined in the NSW Energy Savings Scheme Rule Clause 9.4 Commercial Lighting Energy Savings Formula. Most of the LED lighting selections targeted at functioning at half of the existing lamp wattages. Based on different quantities of lights in 16 different buildings, annual energy savings varied from 6,263 kWh to 1,980,852 kWh per building, Presuming a flat average energy costs of $0.18/kWh for the cost savings figures, all 23,240 lights could save up to $1.15M per year across the entire hospital. Overall, approximately 60% of the lighting energy consumption in RPA Hospital was reduced successfully.
Being able to complete a daunting project of this significant size in one of the most reputable hospitals in Sydney within 22 months, highlights our high capability of managing and tackling the most technically complex and difficult projects in a timely manner. Meanwhile bringing a 60% annual energy reduction solely from upgrading light fittings has allowed us to capture our potential in providing more environmentally concerned solutions for the electrical engineering industry.
“RPA Hospital clinical staff, nurses etc are delighted with the improved lighting levels in the environment in which they work. The lighting upgrade has lifted the whole aesthetic of the hospital which has enhanced the experience of our patients during their stay at RPA.” Said Troy McIntyre, District Energy Manager of SLHD.
Value $4.75mil