The future of our building infrastructure is hybrid

Text: Lieke Bousema | Visuals: Isolectra

Isolectra cares about circularity. Driven by societal challenges and especially the intrinsic motivation of many of its employees, the organisation maintains a strong focus on refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycling of materials. The ultimate ambition is to develop a new typology for building infrastructures in which significant cable reductions of 80–90% per building are theoretically possible.

Isolectra is not only the founder of pluggable installation in the Netherlands, but also a pioneer in the circular economy. Seven years ago, the company introduced the first initiatives to make production processes more sustainable, improve the infrastructure and minimise waste. Among other things, the goal is to utilise as little of our scarce natural resources and produce as little waste as possible. “This is reflected in many of our initiatives. For example, our employees come up with refreshing and surprising ideas on how to further reduce material usage in non-residential and residential construction,” says general director Werner Hulst. “A simple example of this is incorporating wall outlets, pipes and ducts in precast walls. Another example is the use of ever-evolving pluggable technology. If you opt for 100% pluggable installation, you also opt for 100% removable installation. Modifications are easy to make and at the end of the building's life cycle, the pluggable technology can easily bedisassembled and reused elsewhere.” Pluggable installation helps to prevent material loss and waste at the construction site, says marketing manager Casper Bontenbal. “All materials that are delivered to the construction site are actually used. In this manner, we make an important contribution to the sustainability of buildings, the efforts to close the material loop and the national government's objective of lowering the environmental impact of buildings.”

New typology
“When you consider our long-term vision, all our developments are aimed at the reduction of horizontal cabling in buildings,” Hulst says. “By developing high-grade and reusable pluggable installations and hybrid data installations, we want to drastically reduce the amount of plastic and copper cables used in buildings.” Reductions of 50%, 60% or more per building are not unusual. “Every step we currently take contributes to this ambition. Furthermore, we are paving the way for a new typology for building infrastructures.”

National Environmental Database
An important step in this regard is the inclusion of the Wieland GST18^® and RST20^® pluggable installation systems in the National Environmental Database (NMD). “Architects, consultants, installers and other stakeholders who prescribe and apply our systems in their projects can use NMD data to make effective product comparisons. But also to calculate and even lower the sustainability and environmental performance of their buildings”, says Bontenbal.

The purpose of the NMD is to provide clear insight into the environmental performances and circularity of buildings. It is based on the life cycle analysis (LCA) of a construction product. An LCA considers a product's overall environmental impact: from raw material to production and from demolition to recycling. “We recently completed the LCA study. Over the course of circa two years, the environmental impact of our pluggable products was assessed. Among other factors, the use of energy and raw materials, waste flows and emissions were quantified and verified by an independent and qualified LCA expert before the products could be included in the NMD with a Category 1 Environmental Statement. This gives market parties access to the most detailed product information, which they can use to select the construction products with the lowest environmental impact.”

Hybrid infrastructure
A second important step is the testing, refurbishment and recertification of all pluggable installation materials coming from our buildings when they are renovated or demolished. We are also developing a hybrid infrastructure, which makes it possible to carry power and data through the same cable. Whereas PoE makes it possible to supply electrical power through a data cable, Isolectra has deliberately chosen the opposite approach: data transmission via Plastic Optical Fibre (POF) that is integrated in the power cable. Bontenbal and Hulst say this solution offers major benefits in non-residential buildings. After all, this technology leads to considerably lower energy and material losses. “The theoretical savings potential is 80–90% on a building’s cabling.”

At the moment, physical data cables still run from the patch cabinet to every outlet in a building. Hulst: “Cables in the Netherlands have an average length of 57 metres and contain circa 3.4 kg of material (copper, plastic, partition and chemicals). Additionally, a power cable has to be connected that must be installed separately to comply with various (interference) requirements. The technology we are currently developing brings these two infrastructures together. It allows us to use the same typology for a data point as for a power outlet. This means that the cables used for the power supply can also be used for high-speed data communication. It eliminates the need for separate data cables. Furthermore, the traditional star connection is replaced by a bus cable, which reduces the average cable length to every outlet by circa 70%. In an average hospital with 20,000 ports, installers can save 80–85% in cabling throughout the building. This also reduces the amount of material required and the amount ofwaste produced by 80–85 tonnes.”

Level of support
Isolectra’s own office in Rotterdam has already been set up in accordance with the new and circular philosophy, but much more development work is required in the future, Hulst acknowledges. Additionally, the risks and societal benefits must be highlighted in equal measure and the market will need time to get used to this new vision. “We have therefore decided to begin by introducing an integral cable structure for the residential construction sector.” Bontenbal: “With our Streda smart installation system, residents can benefit from high-speed data communication wherever they have a power outlet in their home. This makes their home even more flexible and modern. Together with the enormous savings, these advantages will hopefully generate support in the non-residential construction sector as time goes on.”

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