TECHNOLOGY
Wireless solutions make upgrades less disruptive, and allow older facilities with a mix of legacy systems to be unified under a common platform.
within the software to match new room boundaries, different occupancy patterns or lighting routines. This adaptability enables phased refurbishments and alterations as building needs change, reducing disruption and costs. Wireless and hybrid solutions make upgrades faster and less disruptive – a key advantage in sensitive environments where downtime must be minimised. They also allow older facilities with a mix of legacy systems to be unified under a common management platform, improving consistency and reducing long-term costs, while improving efficiency for facilities teams who only need to refer to a single dashboard, rather than several. With off- site commissioning available using digital twins, a complex challenge can be addressed quickly with little, if any, disruption to patients or clinicians. Related to this is the inherent flexibility of connected
Russell Vanstone
Russell Vanstone is the product manager for Connected Buildings at Legrand UK & Ireland. Russell has nearly 20 years of experience in the professional lighting industry, having originally trained as an electrician.
He has an extensive
background in networked systems design, spanning DALI, DMX, IP networking, fibre optic communications, wireless platforms, and industrial protocols – ensuring seamless integration and interoperability across complex environments.
lighting platforms. This has valuable implications for organisational resilience and disaster recovery protocols. Space can quickly be repurposed or brought back into service, with lighting reprogrammed to serve the new use. Away from the acute response to disaster or pandemic, changing demographics and associated morbidities will of course over time shift demand between different clinical specialties. A flexible lighting platform reduces the facilities costs of managing the evolving use of hospitals and other healthcare buildings. For instance, falling birthrates and an aging population, may see clinical areas needing to be repurposed from maternity services towards the very different needs of geriatric services.
Putting data to work Where lighting systems include field-based devices like sensors, scene plates and push button couplers, further information such as temperature or humidity is made available via dashboards so facilities teams can monitor and adjust as needed. Using floorplan-based navigation and live dashboards means trends in energy expenditure and faults can be more easily and quickly located by facilities managers without having to spend time and resources on physical inspections. The upshot is increasing uptime for clinical spaces subject to the high levels of demand seen across the health service and private providers. A fully networked lighting platform, like Legrand’s
78 Health Estate Journal March 2026
Wattstopper PLUS, can supply a headcount of building occupants which can then be used to inform and adjust HVAC schedules. Non-clinical areas within healthcare settings such as retail, food vendors and other public spaces can, for example, use this same headcount data to automatically save energy by reducing lighting at quiet points during the day. The same dynamic applies to areas with variable occupancy, such as accident and emergency waiting areas. An office building could use scheduled scenes to reduce the lighting during the lunch hour to lower the building’s carbon emissions. Facilities teams can use resources such as Polaris’s floorplan navigation, live status and remote diagnostics, along with integrations such as BACnet, MQTT and REST API to help optimise space planning, energy reporting and fault finding. Improved data collection then opens opportunities
to carry out more preventative maintenance, which is a key consideration for under-pressure healthcare settings. By using comprehensive status reporting, fault logs and remote diagnostics, it is possible to highlight specifically where attention is required, meaning facilities teams can perform maintenance before a fault arises. The upshot is the increased availability of clinical areas and a reduced risk of failures.
Illuminating the opportunities When implementing advanced lighting platforms in healthcare settings, it is important to partner with a provider that can offer the latest in lighting technology combined with excellent service, from the planning stages to long after installation is complete.
Designed for new build and retrofit
projects, such platforms enable precise, adaptable control of lighting while integrating seamlessly with other building services, delivering compliance, sustainability and operational efficiency in one package.
Wattstopper PLUS is Legrand’s next- generation connected lighting control and building integration platform.
AdobeStock / Rakchanok
AdobeStock / SeanPavonePhoto
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