The largest city in northern Sweden, Umeå built a new flagship assisted living facility in Teg to provide accommodation and on-site rehabilitation for people with dementia and physical illnesses. The choice for the access control system was Tidomat integrated with Aperio wireless lock technology from Assa Abloy.

Key requirements for the facility’s locking solution included a people-centred, secure electronic access control system that would be suited to keeping a vulnerable client group safe combined with a sustainable technology to cut unnecessary energy use at the new facility.

Each of the 110 Aperio equipped doors is connected wirelessly to the access control system. There’s also a locker in every room that can only be opened, via electronic lock, by the correct resident or a member of staff.

Aperio wireless locks are battery powered, and so use much less energy than wired magnetic security locks. They only “wake up” when a credential is presented to the reader. In fact, an Aperio lock and reader combined uses only 0.001 kWh of energy per year. This compares with 55.2 kWh per year for many typical wired locks and readers.

The energy-efficient Aperio installation is flexible and future-proofed: it allows Umeå Social Services to bring further facilities into the access control system, if required at a later date. “This is the first step,” says Åsa Jernbom, planning secretary at Umeå Social Services. “Because we’re going to build more assisted living facilities, so we need to think in the long term—smart and sustainable. Umeå is setting the standard with this new facility.”

Joacim Äwrnlund, Aperio Sales Manager Sweden at Assa Abloy, adds: “We are very proud of the energy- and carbon-saving credentials of our battery-powered locks. In the long term, installing wireless locks like Aperio also guarantees cost savings, thanks to reduced energy consumption and lower carbon emissions from a site.”