ENERGY HARVESTING & STORAGE

Modular buildings in the time of Covid-19
By Graham MartinT

he coronavirus crisis has brought profound change acrossthe globe. The sheer scale of the pandemic puts enormous stress on healthcare systems everywhere. Medical
facilities, from hospitals to care homes and housing for vulnerable people – all are focussed on limiting the spread and humanimpact of Covid-19.
This crisis has developed very quickly, and, for many the response has been fast. China built two new hospitals in a matterof days. India and other countries are converting private hospitals to coronavirus-only facilities. And in the UK, new “Nightingale” hospitals are set to add thousands of beds in former
exhibition centres in London and other regional centres.
Alongside these major hospitals, many smaller facilities are
joining the battle against Covid-19. Examples include pods
being built for the new coronavirus ward at Wigan Infirmary,providing 52 new beds for patients, 28 of them dedicated to
critical care beds. A 20-bed isolation ward for Royal SurreyCounty Hospital is planned to be fully completed and ready toaccept patients within just eight weeks. Wards for more than
150 new beds are being built in Shropshire for delivery to three
NHS trusts in England in the North West, Midlands and HomeCounties. The whole process is expected to take around nine
to 10 weeks. And temporary mortuaries, such as the one being
built in the London Borough of Newham, will relieve the stresson hospitals by acting as a holding point before burial or cremation can take place. As well as these facilities, there are many
more smaller requirements such as assessment, screening andoutpatient test.

Modular construction.

Factory-built to hospital requirements

Modular construction is the key to meeting health services’diverse needs. For example, factory-built techniques can deliver
a single ward in 16 weeks, while an individual operating theatre
can be supplied in just ten. These modular buildings are typically custom-made so that they meet the health authority’s exact
space and budget requirements. Off-site construction means
individual modules come delivered ready to install. Disruption to
everyday running of the hospital is kept to a minimum, keeping
it more convenient for all involved.
Graham Martin is Chairman and CEO of the EnOcean Alliance www.enocean-alliance.org
www.eenewseurope.com

The bespoke design of modular buildings is perfect for hospitals looking to create new wards and theatres with a designated use. Electrical requirements, from power and lighting tosecure networking communications, are typically installed offsite in the form of modular power cabling and wireless batteryfree controls. Already proven in commercial electrical and industrial installations, structured cabling and modular wiring ensurethat electrical installations are undertaken efficiently and in theleast possible time. With the situation constantly changing, suchready-made installations are highly adaptable and offer a highdegree of flexibility.

A hospital intensive care ward.
Experience from industrial and commercial building showsthat traditional fixed installations are labour intensive, offer
little in flexibility and remain costly. In contrast, modular wiringand flat-cable-connected systems, prefabricated off-site andcoupled to wireless controllers and sensors, enable a complete
installation to be implemented fast and at low cost.
These technologies and processes have been proven incommercial premises and homes. By using computer design
and modelling, total modular wiring design can be provided,with all the power cabling pre-wired in the ceiling or wall space.
The installation process for energy harvesting wireless devices
makes it a simple process as switch drops and associated conduit drops are not required.
There is no need to coordinate the switch position with thestudwork and less time is spent during electrical first fix feeding
cables through a closed wall. Reducing the level of interfaces
and task dependencies between trades on-site ensures lower
disruption: less for disease transmission.
Energy harvesting wireless sensors, switches and controls
can be placed anywhere in the building, even at places that aredifficult to access. Installed once, there are no requirements formaintaining the devices, for example to change dead batteries. Thanks to the energy harvesting principle, the switches andsensors are powered solely by their surrounding environment. It
also allows the system to be expanded any time.

Automation built-in

The combination of innovative product technology and good
design puts the focus back on safety, security, as well as theneeds of patients, care-workers, clinicians and auxiliary staff.
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ENERGY HARVESTING & STORAGE

A common requirement is to place lighting switches and dimmers where they are most convenient. Powered by the kinetic
energy harvested from the switch operation itself, these can beplaced anywhere. They don’t need to be wired-in, instead sending a wireless signal to the receiver in or near the light or DIN rail
fitting.

Healthcare applications

Experience over many varied projects shows the possibilities
of using smart modular technology in medical facilities to help
meet the coronavirus challenge. The University Medical CenterUtrecht is one such showcase.
This project started with tagging hospital equipment andconnecting it to a mesh network, enabling nurses and technical staff to know in real-time where the equipment was located.
Later, self-powered and battery-free switched are used as callbuttons. The addition of connected proximity sensors allows
staff to know which areas are in use, and to schedule cleaning in unoccupied areas, whilst identifying spaces that havenot been used so do not require cleaning. Another possibilityis to attach sensors to soap dispensers in restrooms, alerting
maintenance staff to re-supply, ensuring that people can always
wash their hands properly. The list of opportunities goes on:
for example, adding a sensor network to monitor patients withspecific risk or linking beacons to Google maps for navigation
around the hospital.

A wall-mount self-powered double switch.
Energy harvesting technology also enables other applications
based on solar-powered sensors. For example, self-powered
occupancy sensors can link wirelessly to intruder alarms; inaddition, they can switch the lighting and heating off when
nobody is around. Similar capabilities are available by equipping
windows with contact sensors powered by light. Safety andsecurity can also be extended, for example using light-powered
CO₂ sensors or flood detection with solar-powered or kinetic
sensors. Another energy source is temperature differences
between heating radiators and their environment. This kind ofenergy harvesting for example enables self-powered heating
valves to communicate wirelessly with a room thermostat or asmart home box for heating control according to the specificsituation.
The EnOcean energy harvesting wireless technology isalready proven in around 1,000,000 buildings worldwide, fromfactories to offices and multi-occupancy buildings as well as
healthcare facilities. The technology has been successfully
installed in modular homes across Europe, North America andAsia for more than a decade. Across the board, it performs
flawlessly and has demonstrated excellent reliability, resilienceand security. As well as new builds, it is ideal for the retrofits
required as medical facilities respond to the ever-changing
coronavirus situation.
Most energy harvesting sensors, switches and other selfpowered devices communicate over distances of up to 30
metres in buildings, with short encrypted messages sent via
the international EnOcean wireless standard (ISO/IEC 14543-31X) in sub-1GHz. With a large variety of sensors and switches
available, initiatives such as the EnOcean Alliance allows users
to choose functions with style and certified interoperability. This
makes it easy to choose a range of building automation options
while the modular building is being fabricated; and it is simple
to add new functions later.
There are also self-powered devices integrating EnOcean’senergy harvesting technology which communicate directly withlights via secure wireless telegram signals. This enables green,
battery-free switches and solar-powered sensors to be used
to flexibly control additional applications such as LED lights orloudspeakers.

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Solar-powered multi-sensor units can be used flexibly tocontrol various applications.

As the pandemic subsides

Going forward, the combination of IoT and AI could bring ina huge array of data into the equation. This assists progress
towards building cognitive homes.
Intelligent modular buildings will soon be able to integrate IoT
devices on their own, generate vast amounts of data and use
them to optimize the building. This gives an entirely new dimension to services and business models. It is particularly relevantto the coronavirus survivors in the ageing population. Private
homes and care homes will include smart non-intrusive, secureconnections with friends, family, GPs, nurses and carers, allinvolved in looking after the residents. Conditions such as dementia would be addressed through ‘sensory-loss’ technologies
based on patterns of activity and behaviour. And technology
based on IoT connected battery-free sensors will help prevent
incidents in the home such as cookers left on, overflowing
baths and people becoming confused about their whereabouts.

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