The whole point of agile office design is to make it easy for occupants to change floor plan configurations to suit their needs. Clients specify modular walls and workstations so that as the demands of the business change the floor plan can be easily altered.
Pairing demountable walls with conventional electrical solutions makes no sense; the benefits of modular design can never be fully realized unless power distribution is as agile as the wall systems.
Spider Agile Technology is a manufacturer of flexible and cost-effective alternatives to rigid electrical installations. Spider offers plug ‘n play solutions that can be installed in new and existing buildings, and that work well in a ceiling space or raised access floor.
Certified by CSA and UL, Canadian and American certification bodies, the system is a proven technology for use in commercial buildings. When combined with the ICE® software platform, Spider makes placing outlets and floor boxes child’s play.
Conventional Electric Distribution versus Spider Agile Technology
The traditional approach to electric distribution requires trained journeymen electricians and is performed entirely on site. Wiring is laboriously fed through conduit and manual connections are the norm.
Contrast this with the ease of installation of Spider where parts are pre-wired and then easily linked together at the job site. Manufacturing of the electric components is done at the Spider factory with on-site installation reduced to connections by a small crew.
Rigid electrical systems conspire against flexibility because they have fixed electrical points for user access. These access points are defined weeks and months before occupants move in. When changes occur to the floor layout after occupants move in, users are either tethered to existing outlets and/or wiring is torn out and discarded.
A marriage of pre-wired movable walls and an agile electrical solution makes for flexible reconfiguring of workstations and walls. A journeyman electrician is not usually required for reconfigurations with Spider Agile Technology.
Economic and Environmental Benefits of Agile Solutions
With conventional wiring, the contractor makes an educated guess about the amount of material that will be necessary for the job; it is common to include an additional 10 percent in the budget. Once on site, excess material becomes waste. Sometimes it is recycled but more often it is tossed in landfills.
The Spider solution is pre-engineered, -manufactured and -tested. The budget is fixed, with no surprises for the unwary purchaser. Thanks to Spider’s unique Panel Manager system installation takes a fraction of the time, reducing the final cost for the electrical system in a building.
Agile technology responds to sustainability concerns much better than traditional electrical systems. Waste at the factory is carefully monitored and recycled. The reusable nature of the technology means that materials in the assembly can stay in service for years to come, regardless of changes to the floor layout.
3D Software Enhances Spider Electrical Solutions
Most clients are not proficient in reading 2D electrical plans. Spider illustrates the plan in intelligent 3D software called ICE®, allowing viewers to see the plan in real-time 3D. As they make changes to the layout ICE instantaneously calculates the exact cost of each change.
Agile solutions respond to the reality of the contemporary workplace. Change is inevitable, and with plug ‘n play electrical solutions, that change can take place rapidly and with little muss or fuss. The end result is a more sustainable solution that clients and occupants appreciate.
Andree Iffrig - Andrée Iffrig LEED AP is a writer and award-winning graduate architect. She uses her broad background in environmental design and ...
