Case study CommerCial

Ballan District Health and Care Superclinic Connecting you to a more sustainable future

Case Study / Ballan district Health and Care superclinic pg 2

Medical centre cured of high energy costs

A clever energy plan, an extensive knowledge of lighting and a desire to do the right thing by the environment have resulted in a new medical centre in regional Victoria enjoying a significantly smaller carbon footprint.

Ballan District Health and Care is a not for profit community-owned and governed hospital, servicing the Moorabool Shire, a rural area ear-marked for growth on the western side of Melbourne.

Established in 1944 as a Bush Nursing Hospital, Ballan District Health and Care (BDHC) has, in more than 40 years, grown to become a thriving community hospital offering a range of services including community health, acute services, district nursing, retirement accommodation, 24-hour emergency unit, dementia unit and residential aged care accommodation.

So valued is the new health care centre that the small community raised $1 million towards its costs. The hospital employs more than 100 people and each year returns to the community more than $4 million in salaries, wages and purchases.

There are only 12 bush nursing hospitals remaining in Victoria and Ballan District Health and Care is proudly one of these.

However, it’s when you step inside the newly-converted Medical Centre – the first completed Primary Health Care Centre in Australia, partially funded by the Federal Government and opened by the Minister, Nicola Roxon, early in 2010 this year – that the term ‘bush hospital’ is the farthest thought from your mind.

The pleasant, modern foyer and reception areas are illuminated by a bank of LED downlights, giving the centre a very modern feel within the exterior of a building that adheres to the classical design of other residences in the town.

The centre services around 3,500 people in the immediate Ballan area and further into Bacchus Marsh through to Ballarat.

EcoSmart Electricians-accredited electrical contractor John Cutler, from Keemin Electrical, has a long association with BDHC and was also part of the fundraising committee for the new centre. “It was very satisfying to see the project come to fruition,” says John, who was responsible for the electrical component of the newly-refurbished building.

History in the making

Originally, 50 years ago, the house that is now the medical centre belonged to a local doctor who also had his surgery in one of the rooms. After a few years it was sold and, about 30 years ago, another doctor who worked at the hospital, purchased it as his residence. Back then he could then walk through the side gate to his private practice in one of the hospital rooms and also conduct his hospital rounds.

Case Study / Ballan district Health and Care superclinic pg 3

The house was subsequently sold a couple of times before the hospital committee purchased it in 2008 for its current purpose.

“Rather than knock down this elegant Victorian home, which was still in good condition, it was expanded with an extensive wing and converted into the centre you see today,” says John.

He says the centre is vital to the area because the residents of Ballan and surrounding areas need adequate medical care. So Ballan was identified as an ideal place for one of these new GP Superclinics.

John has been responsible for the hospital’s electrical work for the past 30 years and when the contract for the new centre became available he was approached by the hospital’s management to fulfil the electrical contract.

“But when I first saw the plans for the new components for the centre, I was very disappointed, and told them so.”

John explains that he could see the whole building was going to be very inefficient in its energy use because of the type of lighting and heating/cooling that was recommended.

“I said to the management that I was upset because so many people had raised a lot of money for the centre and I didn’t want to see it wasted unnecessarily on high energy bills.”

The hospital management quickly agreed with John and gave him time, and a budget, to deliver an alternative. He did his homework and provided a solution that, while a little more expensive initially, would have a quick payback and provide ongoing energy savings. Management was delighted and gave John the approval to proceed with the work.

Case Study / Ballan district Health and Care superclinic pg 4

“I found a reputable manufacturer of LED downlights that only consume a tiny two watts (2W) of power and used them throughout the building. Although in some areas the ceilings are very high, like the corridors in the older part of the centre, the light output met the required standards as it was not necessary to have the area flooded with light.

“In the rooms with lower ceilings, the LEDs are just fine. In the hallways, reception area and conference room, I installed as many LED lights as necessary to provide the right lux levels*,” he says.

In the doctor’s consulting rooms, where bright lights are a must, I installed new energy-efficient 28W fluorescent lights and fittings, but I added an auto dimmer to these so that they don’t necessarily need to be on full power all the time.

A low-voltage Clipsal C-Bus control system that John installed allows him to program the light levels and timers even between different types of globes.

He has also made the most of natural light in the doctor’s consulting rooms.

“If the doctors open the blinds and there is enough available daylight, the lights will dim automatically – we utilised the C-bus control system for that function as well. And we used 28W fluoros (a lower wattage) on auto dimmers.

“These lights switch off if no movement is detected after five minutes.

“It’s just another small energy-saver but it all adds up.”

In one long corridor, John has installed six LED downlights. Even so, the power consumption is still a miserly 12W.

“That’s the equivalent of just one energy-efficient CFL,” he says, smiling. “Even then they’re on movement sensors so they’re not even on all the time.”

John also installed 2W LED lights in all the 20-odd safety Emergency Exit lights.

Payback time

“These will pay for themselves in two years because of their extremely long working life and such low power consumption.

“When you do the mathematics and compare the costs of running and replacement costs between a traditional 10W fluoro with a 2W LED, and extend that over a 10-year period … you can save $50 per annum per fitting. Because these lights have to be left on 24/7 and LEDs have a 50,000-hour life, it’s easy to see where the savings are.

“For the other LEDs, I estimate a payback within three years compared to standard lights.

Case Study / Ballan district Health and Care superclinic pg 5

“In a new building like this with a major refurbishment, it is an absolute no-brainer with the new technology available.

“And another advantage of the LEDs is that they deliver instant full light when you hit the switch, no warm-up time, no flickering, no delay or half light to full lights.”

John adds that the LEDs produce minimal heat, so they don’t affect air conditioning levels or pose a problem with ceiling insulation as other downlights can do.

Andrew Parke, Head of Maintenance at BDHC, is a big fan of the new lighting system installed by John.

“Why wouldn’t I be,” he asks, “I haven’t had to change a light globe since they were installed. And there are some pretty high ceilings I have to deal with, too,” he jokes.

Andrew, who has been at BDHC for 12 years, is more than comfortable with the light levels produced by the LEDs that John has installed.

“I think they look really good,” he attests. “I’ve walked around with the lux* meter and the lighting complies with the standards it’s meant to reach.”

Andrew’s daily duties include a lot of essential services work linked to the healthcare facility, added to general upkeep tasks to ensure the facility is running at its optimum and also looks its best.

“I’m kept busy fixing lots of things around the hospital and nursing home, like carpets, doors, windows, etc, so not having to worry about getting the ladder out and changing a few light globes in the new health care centre is a real bonus.

Case Study / Ballan district Health and Care superclinic pg 6

“It’s certainly not like other areas of the facility.

“For instance, I’d have to change around $600-700 worth of globes and fluorescent tubes every year. I also need a place to store all the spares in addition to dealing with the disposal of the old globes.

“These new LEDs have such a long working life, use such little power and look so good, I’m glad we’re looking at installing them throughout the entire facility.

“And the LEDs in the emergency exit signs pay for themselves even sooner because they’re always on.

“John really knows his way around here and is a great problem-solver. I just tell him what the problem is and he fixes it. I’m not an electrician so having to explain things in detail would be a hassle for me. But John seems to understand straight away what the issue is and I just leave him to it.

“He always takes my calls and is even happy to take them at two in the morning – well, maybe not happy, but he did take my call when a large electricity transformer on the pole in the street malfunctioned and we were thrown into darkness.

“He arrived quickly and rang the power company to explain exactly what happened, which helped speed up the process of getting the power reinstated,” says Andrew.

John’s solution for the split system air conditioning units, which are in most rooms, was also well thought out.

“These are big energy-wasters if they’re left on in unoccupied rooms,” says John. “I devised a way to incorporate the air conditioning units into the C-Bus system – which I believe was quite uncommon, and to my knowledge, is still rare.

“I installed a second set of on/off switches in every room with an air conditioner so that the occupants had to make a conscious decision to turn on the unit. If, however, they forgot to turn it off when they left the room, after 20 minutes the timers would do it for them,” says John.

Andrew is appreciative of John’s knowhow.

“John set up each room’s air conditioners according to the wishes of the individual occupants so that there’s no need for me to be adjusting them for the right temperature. They’re basically set for life. And I don’t have to go around each night making sure they’re turned off because that’s all done automatically as well,” he says .

“It’s almost boring now,” he laughs. “The lights come on and off when they’re supposed to and the temperature is regulated.”

Case Study / Ballan district Health and Care superclinic pg 7

And in the garden …

Perhaps the extent of John’s ingenuity is more evident outside at night in the centre’s front garden entrance.

Outside, John has installed 2W LEDs in the eaves around the building’s perimeter. They are connected to daylight sensors to prevent them coming on unnecessarily and are also on time clocks that switch them off for a couple of hours in the middle of the night.

Security lighting is delivered via 5W LED spotlights that operate throughout the night and are attached to daylight sensors.

In the garden, John has excelled. He utilised 5W LED Para 38 lamps (a standard size exterior globe) for uplights to ‘show off’ the garden trees.

“I used a 150mm sewer pipe as a light fitting and machined it to take the lamp and fixtures, painted it and poked it into the ground so that from the pathway they look like expensive fittings.”

John did a similar job with pathway lighting, again using steel pipe but capped and cut like a ‘Ned Kelly’ helmet to project the light horizontally across the walkway. He painted the exterior black, for camouflage, and the interior of the pipe silver for better illumination.

“We literally saved hundreds of dollars by making our own fittings, and the running costs are again dramatically reduced because of the 5W power consumption and the projected 50,000-hour lamp life.

“It took a bit of time with prototypes in my garage, and using my garden as a guinea pig, but it was worth it in the end.

Case Study / Ballan district Health and Care superclinic pg 8

deFiNitioNs Ecosmart Electrician: An EcoSmart Electrician is a licensed electrical contractor that has certification and accreditation in energy efficiency. These electricians have been professionally trained in energy efficient products, technologies and installations to assist you to save energy and money.

Lux: Lux is how the human eye perceives brightness.

“I knew how hard people had worked to raise the funding for the hospital so I was extremely conscious about how the money was spent,” says John.

“I don’t have to but sometimes I drive past the centre at night just to check out the exterior lighting,” says maintenance man Andrew.

Untapped knowledge

John speaks glowingly about his EcoSmart Electricians training.

“It brought to the forefront all the things that had been sitting in the back of my mind and made me stop and think. It also challenged me about what I was doing about sustainability and recycling. I think we have all got a responsibility to look to the future.

“I feel really comfortable about this installation and am pleased that it can be supported economically.

“The EcoSmart Electricians course gave me the confidence to embrace the concept of sustainable electrical installations, because even though there is so much in the news about sustainability it is still a very hard sell to clients.”

John is looking to market himself in the area as an energy-efficiency consultant.

“I always give the client the option of doing it the energy-efficient way. Some clients really appreciate the fact that I can offer them an alternative that allows them to reduce their impact on the environment.

“People laugh at me when I say electricity is cheap – but compared to other countries, it really is. That is why offering clients an alternative is so important,” says John.

“Thankfully, the hospital management realised this and was impressed with the energy savings and return on investment period, so it took very little convincing.”