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Grand Union Housing Rolls Out Innovative Automated Light Testing Technology
Grand Union Housing Group Rolls Out Innovative Automated Light Testing Technology
Innovative automatic monitoring technology from Vericon Systems, a leading provider of innovative building management systems, is helping Grand Union Housing Group to realise the true benefits and efficiencies of emergency light testing without the need for manual intervention.
It is also helping to provide the Milton Keynes-based housing provider with even greater assurance that it is complying with relevant health and safety legislation, as well as saving money.
As part of the roll out, Grand Union has installed more than 650 of Vericon’s EmeRed devices across 55 buildings in its housing portfolio, including in some new build specifications. EmeRed monitors the performance of every light and automatically transmits the results to Vericon’s online portal. This gives Grand Union complete visibility of the status of individual lights in a single building, as well as performance trends across the entire estate.
EmeRed reports a range of different factors to ensure the lighting is always on the top line, such as battery degradation and energy consumption. It also measures the life outstanding in each battery to ensure they are replaced before an emergency occurs and automatically reports any potential failures or problems.
Cameron Jeffrey, Head of Health Safety and Compliance at Grand Union, says the company is always looking at ways to make their processes more efficient:
“Testing emergency lighting equipment is an important responsibility, but manual testing is a time-consuming and therefore costly job. Remote and automated testing, as well as the ability to identify problems before they even arise, provides obvious advantages for us, and helps to ensure we can provide the highest level of service to our customers.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has also had an impact, further helping to highlight the benefits of remote testing:
“Like most businesses, the pandemic has had a big impact on our workforce, stopping us from physically sending engineers and maintenance staff out to sites, and forcing us to review our processes, and adopting new technologies like EmeRed” – “Some of our properties are in remote locations, so eliminating unnecessary travel has been a particularly important saving.
“The roll out has been going well, with a 98% success rate on retrofitting. The biggest advantage has been the complete visibility of the stock. The portal is easy to use, and the monitoring and reporting services are very useful. The Vericon team have a clear passion and understanding for innovation and technology, and the ongoing support and service they have provided has been great.”
The intelligent device, which can be easily retrofitted in a matter of minutes, re-imagines how new technology can be created to improve safety, ensure compliance, and reduce costs.
Bernard Cook, Managing Director at Vericon Systems, says Vericon is pleased to be working with the housing provider:
“Grand Union are a genuinely forward-thinking organisation, keen to adopt new technologies and solutions. Thanks to EmeRed’s smart technologies and machine learning to automate their emergency light testing, they are able to see how valuable time and money can be saved.”
Grand Union Housing Group is a not-for-profit organisation providing 12,000 homes for more than 27,000 people across Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire. Its mission is to build more homes, stronger communities and better lives.
EmeRed Return on Investment Case Study
EmeRed Return on Investment Case Study
Products:
Project Scope
- Carry out all regulatory compliance testing remotely.
- Understand What, Where, When, for any fault condition.
- Wi-Fi is not an option for connectivity.
- Budget will not stretch to lighting replacements.
- Installation to be carried out by the inhouse electrical team.
- The system must not generate additional work for the office team.
Background
The client is a housing association that has grown by combining assets and resources from several
smaller housing providers. This type of growth results in a wide range of housing stock and asset schedules over a large geographical area, which brings challenges of monitoring, managing and maintaining their portfolio. They currently have more than 10,000 properties and have a plan to build nearly 2000 additional homes over coming years.
Estate Breakdown of Phase One
| Number of Buildings | 44 |
| Average Emergency Lights per Building (total number of emergency lights ÷ number of buildings) |
10.25 |
Existing Costs
The existing testing costs only take account the testing engineers time and
associated costs, however, no allowance has been made for the back-office team
costs.
| Monthly flick test per building | £ 36.00 |
| 6-month 60-minute duration test | £ 2.20 Average cost per fitting per site |
| Annual 3-hour duration tes | £ 3.25 Average cost per fitting per site |
EmeRed System Costs
| GSM Gateway Cost | £149.00 |
| EmeRed Cost with 5 Year Portal and Data Subscription | £94.70 |
| Aditional Portal Users | £0.00 |
| Additional Engineers | £0.00 |
EmeRed Installation Costs
Managed internally with the existing electrical team.
| Time to install an EmeRed | 15 – 20 minutes per fitting (average 1 building per day) |
| Time to install a Gateway | 30 minutes |
Manual Testing Figures
Calculate the manual testing costs for a 5-year period to align with the EmeRed system costs.
No allowance has been made for office staff
| Flick test (10 tests per fitting per annum) |
£ 79,200.00 (£36 per building x 44 properties x 10 tests per year x 5 years) |
| 60-minute duration test (1 test per fitting per annum) |
£ 4,961.00 (£2.20 60 minute test cost x 451 emergency lights x 1 test per year x 5 years) |
| 3-hour duration test (1 test per fitting per annum) |
£ 7,328.75 (£3.25 3 hour test cost x 451 emergency lights x 1 test per year x 5 years) |
| Total cost over 5 years | £ 91,489.75 |
EmeRed System Figures
| Total Cost of Gateways | £ 6,556.00 (1 per building) |
| Total Cost of EmeReds | £ 42,265.70 (1 per light) |
| Total system costs (For 5 years) | £ 49,265.70 |
Return on Investment
|
Total savings over the 5 year period |
£ 42,224.05 |
| Return on Investment | 1.85 years (cost of EmeRed System ÷ 5 year manual testing cost) |
Conclusion
Significant savings are being realised by this client who is currently moving to phase 2 and including EmeRed into the new build specifications.