Christian Primary School Tamarinde – Zaandam

The students of CBS Tamarinde in Zaandam will follow lessons in a completely new school building after summer holiday. And to make the school as sustainable and smart as possible, the control of the lighting and blinds is fully automated.

After the demolition of the old building, the construction of the new school on Jonge Arnoldusstraat started last summer. At the end of 2017 the building was watertight and the e-installation could be started.

GIA Systems has installed efficient lighting control in the classrooms, which provides the best lighting to stimulate learning. At the same time, the system offers different scenarios, saves energy and is user-friendly for teachers and support staff.

“To ensure that schools can focus on providing the best possible education, GIA Systems ensures that the building functions as efficiently as possible,” says Robert Koopman of GIA Systems. “If the sun shines too brightly, the blinds automatically go down. If the classroom is empty, the lighting switches off automatically. If the teacher wants to use the interactive whiteboard (IWB), he switches off the front row of luminaires. This way the building is energy efficient and smart, without asking active responsibility of the teachers and other staff.

A year ago, around July 2017, the first discussions started with GVE Techniek in Wormerveer about CBS Tamarinde. The reason for this was the introduction of SmartFlexx®, an innovative bus system for rooms where high functionality but only a limited budget are required. Especially for schools there are pre-programmed SmartFlexx® solutions adapted to classrooms, which do not require commissioning. Just plug and play and you’re done! GVE Techniek has successfully applied this principle for this new school. GVE Techniek chose GIA Systems for the cabling and control of light and blinds, because in this way only one party is responsible for ensuring that everything functions properly, without being able to point out to other parties. In this way all the issues that GVE Techniek ran into were solved. “Because everything was delivered pluggable, the installation went smoothly and was delivered on time. To the full satisfaction of all parties”, adds Koopman.

Sustainable measures

The lighting in the entrance, the corridors and the exterior lighting of the school building are switched centrally from the teachers’ room. From this control panel, staff can control not only the lighting but also the sun blinds (the so-called ‘window cleaner mode’) centrally.

Sunblind control is fully automatic and is connected via the GIA BUS® system to a weather station on the roof of the school building. In the classrooms themselves, the blinds and lighting can be controlled locally, whereby the classroom lighting is controlled by an absence button and the lighting at the IWB can be switched separately.

The electrical installation is pluggable, so everything can be delivered on time. The lighting and sunblind control is currently being put into use by engineers from GIA Systems, so that the finishing of the building can begin. After the summer holidays the pupils can start in the completely renovated school.