LOCATION
Mount Wellington, Auckland (New Zealand)
PRODUCTS
Wago product | CUBIC Switchboards | Terasaki TemBreak 2 MCCBs | NHP MOD6 Circuit Breakers
The Introduction
Since opening its doors in February 2011, Stonefields School, located in the foothills of Mount Wellington in Auckland, has established itself as a forward thinking education facility. Forward thinking both in its philosophy of learning, and its implementation of a program that has seen a modern approach taken to traditional learning models. Capable of enrolling over 500 students ranging from years 1 to 8, central to the Stonefields philosophy is an ability to develop each student holistically, all the while encouraging curiosity and strong relationship building.
The overview
So when NHP was approached by local switchboard manufacturer KCS Switchgear to assist with a pioneering extension to the school, it seemed like a perfect fit. But there was one caveat. The switchboards were not only critical to the supply and distribution of power throughout the building, but were also critical to the curriculum of the students.
In line with the school’s vision to creatively utilise open modern learning environments to facilitate social and engaging learning, the requirements of the project outlined a dual-purpose switchboard system. On one hand the system would be used to monitor and regulate the use of power and water in the building, while on the other, this information needed to be relayed to students through a user friendly interface on their computers.
Based in Mount Maunganui, KCS Switchgear operates throughout the North Island of New Zealand and knew that for this project, a local supplier with the necessary expertise to fulfill the brief was critical. Following on from receiving the project from Lyon Electrical, they contacted NHP to see if they were able to assist with a solution. With over 30 years of combined electrical contracting experience, KCS Switchgear are also accredited CUBIC builders sharing a long-standing relationship with NHP who are exclusive distributors of this range across Australian and New Zealand.
“The briefing for the Stonefields School project came into us from Lion Electrical and involved providing all the switchboards for a new extension to the school. Given that it was a Greenstar building we thought it would be a good opportunity to use NHP’s new Terasaki smart breakers,” said Kerry James, Director at KCS Switchgear.
“What made this project different to most though, was that we had to link up the metering gear to the school’s computer system so that the kids can get an understanding of power consumption as part of their curriculum. The main challenge here was getting the information out of the breakers onto a website that was easy to understand and userfriendly,” he continued.
The Solution
Pivotal in coming up with a solution to enable this requirement was NHP’s local Application Engineering Manager, George Janiszewski, who proposed a system that involved a Wago product as a gateway between the breakers and the website.
“The web visualisation that the Wago product offered was ideal for what was required and the entire system was straightforward and simple to implement. It also provided increased flexibility and meant there was no need for costly visualisation software,” said Janiszewski.
As well as the Wago product, other NHP products used in the installation included the CUBIC Switchboards, Terasaki TemBreak 2 moulded case circuit breakers, and MOD6 circuit breakers.
Combining a dedicated and expert local Sales and Application Engineering team with quality well stocked products, the NHP Auckland branch proved to be the ultimate partner, for even though this was a first of its kind, the project was a seamless success. With plans underway to introduce similar learning environments across all of New Zealand, the outcomes at Stonefields School are sure to form a blueprint for future developments.
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