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Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) is a downtown Toronto institution with a strong applied research mandate and a commitment to developing the technologies that will define the built environment of the future. Its newest facility, the Smart Campus Integration and Testing (SCIT) Hub Lab, is one of the most ambitious smart building projects in Canada.
Spanning over 3,200 square feet across two floors at the corner of Dundas Street East and Mutual Street, the SCIT hub is purpose-built as a living laboratory for next-generation building systems research. Designed to be the world’s first 100% digitally enabled building, the hub brings together smart lighting, HVAC, security, power management, and IT systems into a single co-optimized environment. Researchers at TMU and partner universities across Canada use the facility to develop, test, and validate technologies aimed at decarbonizing the built environment and advancing net-zero goals. Every system installed in the SCIT hub is held to the same standard as the research conducted inside it: measurable, defensible, and built to perform over the long term.
The SCIT hub was designed to express its sustainability credentials through its architecture. The building features an exposed cross-laminated timber structure, open ceilings, a deliberate design decision to make the building’s materials and systems visible to researchers, partners, and visitors.
This created a specific challenge for the lighting power infrastructure. In a conventional AC LED installation, each fixture requires its own onboard driver to convert AC power from the grid into the DC current that LEDs actually consume. In a conventional installation, that hardware sits above a dropped ceiling in the plenum. With no plenum to conceal them, drivers require remote mounting directly on exposed structure, and because AC wiring must be enclosed in conduit for safety, every fixture connection adds another conduit run to a ceiling already shared with HVAC, piping, and other building systems. For a university building designed to showcase integrated, high-performance construction, a cluttered ceiling was not acceptable.
TMU needed a DC lighting solution for their university building that could deliver clean placement, keeping power hardware out of the open ceiling plane entirely, without compromising on performance or flexibility.
The solution also had to align with the net-zero carbon mandate, supporting reduced energy losses and long-term operational efficiency consistent with the sustainability bench marks the facility was built to demonstrate.
Cence Power provided centralized DC power distribution for the LED lighting throughout the SCIT Hub Lab, with the Cence LV Hub at the core of the installations. Suspended pendant linear direct/indirect LED fixtures are used throughout the space, providing both upward and downward illumination suited to the hub’s multi-use research and collaboration environment.
Rather than placing an AC-to-DC driver inside each luminaire, power conversion is consolidated in the Cence Hub, located in a utility space outside the occupied ceiling environment. DC power runs directly from the hub to each pendant fixture, eliminating onboard drivers and all the clutter that comes with them. The result is a low voltage lighting solution for the educational facility that reads as clean and intentional, with nothing to compete with the exposed timber structure the architecture was built around. This is the core advantage of the Cence LV system in any open ceiling university environment: remote driver placement that simply looks better.
The result is a low voltage lighting solution for the educational facility that reads as clean and intentional, with nothing to compete with the exposed timber structure the architecture was built around. This is the core advantage of the Cence LV system in any open ceiling university environment: remote driver placement that simply looks better.
The Cence LV system performs AC-to-DC conversion once, at approximately 90% efficiency, at the central hub. Power is then distributed as regulated DC directly to connected fixtures. This eliminates the cumulative conversion in losses inherent in decentralized AC systems, which is a meaningly advantage in a facility whose own energy data contributes to active research.
With power conversion consolidated at the Cence hub rather than distributed overhead across individual fixtures, maintenance does not require ceiling access. Modules are hot-swappable by anyone without specialized electrical training, allowing individual circuits to be serviced without affecting adjacent zones (subject to AHJ). For a research facility where active experiments occupy floor space, the ability to service the lighting system without lifts or ladders is a practical operational advantage.
Because Cence LV operates at Class 2 low voltage, its wiring is safe to touch and requires no conduit. Cables run freely from the hub to each fixture without enclosure, eliminating the conduit runs and junction boxes that would otherwise accumulate across the ceiling. In a new construction environment like the SCIT hub, where multiple integrated building systems share the same infrastructure pathways, that simplicity reduced installation complexity and keeps the ceiling plane clear from the start.
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Removing onboard drivers from the pendant fixtures eliminated the hardware that would otherwise have been visible throughout the open ceiling plane. The Cence Hub consolidates all power conversion in a utility space, leaving the exposed timber structure and pendant fixtures to define the space, exactly as the building was designed to communicate.
In conventional AC LED systems, onboard drivers are typically the first component to fail, often degrading before the LED arrays themselves. By relocating drivers from fixture housings to the hub, LED arrays in the SCIT hub are projected to operate under more than stable thermal conditions, supporting longer effective lifetimes. Servicing occurs at the accessible hub rather that at height.
Centralizing AC-to-DC conversions within a hub eliminates the cumulative losses produced by hundreds of individual fixture drivers. The Cence LV system’s approximately 95%hub-level efficiency is projected to reduce energy losses compared to a conventional decentralized installation where AC is distributed and converted to DC at each fixture individually.
Cence LV reduces the upfront cost of a lighting power installation by eliminating the hardware a conventional AC system requires at every fixture, no onboard drivers, no junction boxes, no conduit. For educational facilities evaluating Power over Ethernet, Cence LV delivers the same low-voltage DC outcome without the network switch hardware and per-port cost structure that makes PoE expensive at scale. A comparable PoE installation for this project would be projected to cost approximately 50% more.
Cost advantage of Cence LV include:
· No per-fixture driver procurement or installation
· No conduit or junction boxes required
· No networks witch hardware required
· Fewer cable runs through multi-fixture power distribution
· Reduced installation labor and commissioning time.
Over the expected system lifetime, Cence LV system is projected to deliver lower operating costs compared to a conventional per-fixture AC installation. Centralized power conversion at a peak efficiency of 95% drastically reduces ongoing energy losses. Furthermore, because all power conversion is consolidated at the hub in an easy-to-access location, maintenance is vastly simplified. If a power module(PM) ever requires replacing, it is a straightforward hot-swap that can be performed even when the system is powered on-requiring no lifts, no ceiling access, and causing no disruption to the occupied space.
Projected operational cost advantages include
· Simplified Maintenance: Centralized hot-swappable Power Modules eliminate the need for ceiling access or specialized lifting equipment.
· Accessible Servicing: Module replacement can be completed quickly and safely at ground level without requiring system downtime.
· Extended Hardware Lifespan: Removing heat-generating AC-to-DC drivers from the ceiling increases LED fixture lifespan by more than 3x.
· Reduced Energy Losses: Achieved through highly efficient, single-point AC-to-DC conversion operating at 97% peak efficiency.
How do you hide LED drivers in a university open ceiling?
The most effective approach is centralized DC power distribution. Instead of placing an AC-to-DC driver inside each fixture (which becomes visible in an open ceiling), the Cence LV Hub consolidates all power conversion in a single utility location. DC power then runs directly to each luminaire, leaving the ceiling plane free of hardware, conduit, and junction boxes.
How does Cence LV compare to PoE lighting for university buildings?
Both deliver low-voltage DC power to fixtures over standard cabling. The difference is infrastructure overhead: PoE requires network switch hardware and carries per-port costs that add up quickly at scale. Cence LV distributes power centrally through the hub without that hardware layer, resulting in projected capital costs approximately 50% lower for comparable installations.
What is the best low voltage lighting solution for educational facilities?
For educational facilities, particularly labs, research spaces, and open-plan environments, a Class 2 low-voltage DC distribution system like Cence LV offers significant advantages over both conventional per-fixture AC and PoE: cleaner installation, lower operating costs, and maintenance that doesn't disrupt the space.
How does DC lighting support net zero campus goals?
DC lighting systems eliminate the repeated AC-to-DC conversion losses that occur in conventional per-fixture AC installations. By converting once at approximately 95% efficiency at a central hub and distributing regulated DC directly to fixtures, systems like Cence LV reduce energy waste at the infrastructure level, making a meaningful contribution to net zero campus lighting targets.
Is DC power distribution suitable for university research labs?
Yes, and particularly well-suited. Research labs benefit from centralized power management, open ceiling compatibility (no visible drivers), and hot-swappable maintenance that avoids disrupting active experiments. The TMU SCIT Hub Lab is a live example of this application.
The TMU SCIT Hub proves that high-performance university infrastructure can perfectly align with your architectural vision while drastically lowering capital and operational costs. Discover how Cence Power’s centralized distribution optimizes campus lighting by reducing installation labor, eliminating AC-to-DC conversion losses, and bypassing the heavy infrastructure costs of traditional AC and PoE. Schedule a Campus System Design Review.
