Mat’Electrique also offers support and assistance services for project managers, as attested to by its three most recent research programs: hospital room layout, the environmental quality of places of learning, and workstations that combine high quality visual performance and energy efficiency.
Rethinking the hospital room
Is it possible to modernize and humanize hospitals – which patients visit for shorter or longer periods – in particular the all important hospital room? For this ambitious program, Mat’Electrique brought together nearly 200 prime contractors, project managers, architects and healthcare professionals (procurement officers looking for solutions and suppliers/service providers interested in showcasing their scientific expertise).
An upstream survey was conducted on four partner healthcare institutions in the Lyon area (Hospices Civils de Lyon, Infirmerie Protestante, Clinique du Tonkin and Centre des Massues). Two model hospital rooms designed on the basis of the survey findings were set up in the Mat'Electrique showroom. In addition, the first two “real” rooms were built this year, in the new Femme-Mère-Enfant women and children’s hospital currently under construction in Lyon.
Discovering the school of the 21st century
One of a kind in Europe, the QELE program for research into the environmental quality
of places of learning is the brainchild of the Rhône-Alpes Region and Mat'Electrique. QELE was initiated with the support of the energy specialist ADEME (Agence de l’Environnement et de Maîtrise de l’Energie), the public civil engineering school ENTPE (Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l’Etat), and CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), France’s national center for scientific research.
The QELE program rapidly gained favor with numerous regional and municipal governments (the Rhône and Savoie Conseils Généraux, the city of Lyon, etc.). Two experimental classrooms were set up at Mat'Electrique, so that researchers, manufacturers, project managers, procurement officers and users could take notes and compare their impressions. The dual objective of this exercise was to improve working conditions in the learning environment and define the contours of the classroom of the future.
Creating comfortable, efficient workplaces
Striking the right balance between electrical power and lighting comfort is always a challenge in the workplace. Some 26 workstations (in open plan spaces, clustered or not, individual or shared), each one equipped with different, state-of-the-art lighting fixtures, were studied by teams from ENTPE and CNRS.
A comparison of the measurements and meter readings revealed that half a dozen of the experimental workstations were efficient, and that no relationship exists between electrical power needed and lighting quality. In other words, top performance and energy efficiency are wholly compatible notions.
If you would like to visit the labs or receive more information on the three research programs, please contact Christine Geoffroy at Mat'Electrique: + 33 (0) 4 72 73 58 95 christine.geoffroy@sonepar.fr
