Technical comfort in healthcare

How do you improve technical comfort in the healthcare sector? In Smart WorkPlace magazine number 7, S&L Zorg Foundation explains what PULSE Core from Smart WorkPlace partner SPIE Netherlands (formerly Strukton Worksphere) did for them.

S&L Care Foundation is a healthcare organisation with 700 employees that provides 24/7 care to approximately 365 people over the age of 20 with mild to severe physical or mental disabilities. They work in about 35 buildings in Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal, each of which is home to about 15 to 20 people.

Since 2016, SPIE Netherlands has been responsible for the maintenance of the mechanical systems of the S&L Zorg Foundation. In addition to performing maintenance on the Foundation’s climate control, air purification, cooling and air conditioning systems, SPIE Netherlands also consults on renovations, overhauls and repairs, as well as dealing with complaints about the systems.

One of the properties of S&L Zorg Foundation is located at Onyxdijk 161A in Roosendaal, a 30-year building that was completely renovated 10 years ago. Prior to the renovation, the two-story, flat-roofed building housed residents and was divided into several care rooms. The building was equipped with several large technical systems, but after the renovation, it was converted into an office.

According to Ron Nijman, head of the technical department at the S&L Zorg Foundation, it is important to be able to measure things properly. “That really came to the fore in ‘161A’ this year, because we had to deal with significant temperature differences across the various rooms. We told SPIE that we wanted complete insight into the system in almost all rooms and had special sensors installed to measure temperature for a number of days.” Charly Nelemans, client manager at SPIE Netherlands: “PULSE Core’s sensor technology is a separate standalone system aimed at providing insight into technical comfort in the workplace. This allowed us to take targeted measurements throughout the building, rather than focusing solely on the systems themselves, based on factors such as light output, temperature and relative humidity. We then compared the resulting data to the outside temperature in order to objectively determine whether the system was performing within the expected bandwidth.”

Ultimately, PULSE Core’s measurement data showed that the reconfigured and expanded systems met the expected performance levels. Even still, Nijman does believe that PULSE Core made a valuable difference: “It has enabled us to fine-tune the building systems and maximize performance, leading to a significantly improved experience by day and at night.”

The climate survey report at ‘161A’ does not just cover building systems but also provides engineering advice. Nelemans explains why: “Addressing the building envelope has the biggest impact on temperature and on how the outside temperature influences the indoor climate, so it’s best to start looking for solutions there before replacing all your technical systems. Strukton Worksphere has the distinct advantage of having in-house teams for both disciplines, which means we can take both perspectives into consideration to find the objectively optimal solution.”

According to Nelemans, there are two ways to use PULSE Core: “You can use it for responsive maintenance, i.e. to respond to complaints or anomalies detected by the building management system. Another option is to use it for predictive maintenance, which involves making predictions based on comparable buildings for which you have access to lots of data.”

The full article on technical comfort in the healthcare sector appeared in the seventh edition of Smart WorkPlace, published on November 12 on the theme “Blended Working.”

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