Van Gerwen Installations installs 361x the ECO-DIM.11

• Posted on 26 October 2023
• 0

Bennie Derix-Willemsen is a contractor at Van Gerwen Installations in Tilburg. Here, he supervises projects from application to execution, with the goal, of course, being a happy customer. Bennie has been working at Van Gerwen Installaties since 2008. He started with the company as a mechanic and therefore knows the tricks of the trade. He recently received a great project from care institution Amarant. We spoke to Bennie about it!

Van Gerwen Installations

Van Gerwen Installaties has been active in the electrical engineering sector for over 100 years and is a household name in Tilburg. They are mainly active in the utility sector. School communities and care institutions are part of Van Gerwen Installaties' portfolio, but municipal projects are no different either. At the office, a team of seven people prepare the projects. Outside the building, 26 fitters/installers are active. Bennie immediately expresses his appreciation of the fitters: "These are the people who actually deserve it, they make it happen."

He says one of the reasons Bennie has been working for Van Gerwen Installaties for so long is the good atmosphere: "We don't have a real hierarchy, we think it's important to all be on the same footing and have a friendly atmosphere within the company. If you feel comfortable at work, you also just work a lot harder."

Project Amarant

Bennie recently had to deal with a nice project from Amarant, a care institution with several locations in Tilburg and Breda, among others. Amarant had to comply with the correct energy label and so they had to switch to LED. Bennie was asked to lead this project for three locations. In consultation with Amarant, Prolumia ceiling lights and a number of Philips lamps were chosen as light sources. However, the biggest challenge of this project was the dimmers. Amarant had a number of important requirements.

Firstly, nothing was allowed to change in the installation. The light sources in the various rooms had to be able to be dimmed from several places using the existing dimmer switches. Some of these dimmer switches have a red border. When this changes, the clients might get confused. This is where Bennie immediately saw a big challenge: "At Amarant, many different maintenance men and installation companies have been working, because of this there were different brands of halogen dimmers, and therefore also different brands of cover material fitted." Among the brands used in the old situation were Gira, JUNG and Busch-Jaeger.

"There were many different brands of halogen dimmers, and therefore also different brands of cover material fitted."

Furthermore, Bennie foresaw a problem with the installation of the dimmers, as in the old situation the dimmers had been installed without a zero wire: "Conventionally it all worked perfectly, but then when you go to LED it becomes a bit trickier. With most LED dimmer you have to pull a zero wire to keep the stabilisation in." At this, Bennie points out that pulling wires was going to be a tricky story both in terms of price and hours. The clients also had to be inconvenienced as little as possible. So pulling neutral wires was not an option either.

So Bennie started looking for a suitable LED dimmer. First of all at Gira, the brand normally used at Van Gerwen Installations. He soon realised that this dimmer was not universal and that neutral wires had to be drawn. After some searching, Bennie ended up with the ECO-DIM.11: "I started Googling." Indicates he. "We also mainly looked at reviews, because I was actually entering unfamiliar territory for a while. That's how we ended up with the ECO-DIM.11. In my opinion, this is the only dimmer that can do what the customer's request was."

Bennie then decided to contact EcoDim for some advice and to ask if the ECO-DIM.11 was the right solution to the problem. In addition, Bennie also asked about the ECO-DIM.03: "We wanted to be uniform throughout the project towards Amarant. That's why we chose the same brand. Should something happen, their own maintenance man can also go there with the EcoDim dimmer." In this project, the ECO-DIM.03 was needed for the larger capacities. Mainly in the living rooms, this was desired because of the many lamps.

A test setup was then made by Van Gerwen Installations on site at Amarant. Bennie: "We made the test setup to see if it all worked with the current switchgear and the LED luminaires we wanted to use." The result was positive: "We sat and watched this for a week or two and it actually worked perfectly, and that without a zero wire. Everyone was very charmed. So the decision was made to choose the ECO-DIM.11."

"In my opinion, this is the only dimmer that can do what the customer's request was."

Via EcoDim, Bennie ended up at Oosterberg Den Bosch. After a pleasant contact with Jasper van Schijndel, Bennie received an offer with the numbers he needed, to which he said yes.

And so the installers from Van Gerwen Installaties were able to get to work at Amarant's three locations. They also gave Bennie positive feedback about the ECO-DIM.11: "They are not used to the fact that no wires have to be drawn and yet an LED dimmer can be connected without any problems. It just works fine, that's really the only thing that comes back." Bennie also noticed some surprise among his colleagues when they install the LED dimmers: "For the fitters, the first impression is: 'what a weird wiring diagram, this can't work, can it?' but it works perfectly so that's nice."

"They are not used to the fact that no neutral wires have to be pulled and yet an LED dimmer can just be connected without any problems."

In the end, the ECO-DIM.11 was installed 361 times by Van Gerwen Installations' fitters. Bennie says that both Amarant and the clients are satisfied with the result: "Of course, the client is not at all interested in the technology of the LED dimmers, they want to be able to switch on and dim the lights from several places. After installing the dimmers, not a single complaint has come in. Very positive!"

Bennie ultimately looks back on the project with satisfaction, noting that it went very well: "For us, it went so smoothly that we actually didn't notice at all that we screwed away 361 dimmers there."

Bennie's final verdict on the ECO-DIM.11 is therefore firm: "I think it's a very fine dimmer, a dimmer that is really universally applicable. This surprised me for the price. When I see what we pay for this and what we pay for a normal LED dimmer, there is quite a gap between the two." Finally, he praises the simple operation of the dimmer: "I want to have a changeover dimmer that I can turn on here and there. Lots of frills are hearty, but it can also break. Most customers don't like that either."

"I think it's a really nice dimmer, a dimmer that is really universally applicable. This surprised me for the price."

Do you also have a nice project with our LED dimmers that you would like to highlight? Send it in to [email protected].