Electrical Contracting News (ECN) August 2016 | Page 45

HVAC

consistently and effectively tested, thereby
reinforcing predictive maintenance.
Effectively managing heating, ventilating,
and air conditioning (HVAC) solutions
is the foundation for taking control of
energy usage in a building, and optimising
environments for enhanced performance
and energy efficiency. In hospitals they are
a vital part of the infrastructure and very
high standards of design and operation
are mandated as part of the government’s
Health Technical Memorandum 00.
HVAC controls connect to and are
controlled by Building Management
Systems (BMS) and respond to
environmental conditions such as
temperature, moisture and CO2. In
hospitals, certain types of rooms have
specialist HVAC pressure requirements.
For example, operating rooms and ICUs
may employ a positive pressure regime
to help to reduce the risk of airborne
infection, while isolation rooms may require
negative pressure to prevent the spread of
airborne pathogens.
As HVAC is often responsible for over
40 per cent of energy usage in any given
building, in hospitals particularly, it is one
of the areas where the most savings can
be made. These savings vary depending
on the equipment being controlled as well
as the existing state of energy conservation
technologies. Experience suggests that
savings of between 15-30 per cent are
achievable in most cases.
As an example, Schneider Electric is
working with Musgrove Park Hospital,

“

The challenges faced by healthcare providers means that ensuring operational efficiency is vital.

ACTING AS A CENTRAL NERVOUS
SYSTEM FOR THE HOSPITAL
AN INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY
INFRASTRUCTURE INTEGRATES
TRADITIONALLY DISPARATE SYSTEMS.

Schneider Electric is working with
Musgrove Park Hospital, part of
the Taunton and Somerset NHS
Foundation Trust, to implement 180
technical energy saving solutions.

intelligence, leading to more effective
use of all resources.
Additionally, actionable information
and real insight provided by tools like
Schneider Electric’s Power Monitoring
Expert help manage power quality
performance, and improve financial
performance, energy availability and
patient safety in healthcare facilities.
Constant power monitoring that provides
real time status is vital to ensure network
recovery time is reduced in case of a fault.
This includes identifying and focusing on
the most sensitive parts of the network as
well as ensuring that standby system is

part of the Taunton and Somerset NHS
Foundation Trust to implement 180
technical energy saving solutions. These
will save the hospital £17m over 20 years.
This is as a result of reducing the hospitals’
energy consumption by more than 40 per
cent. One part of the project was a full
overhaul of the HVAC system including
variable speed drives and control on air
handling units and pumps. The upgrades
included free cooling alterations to remove
mechanical cooling requirements.

SPECIAL FEATURE

in place, which monitors critical power
availability, power quality and schedules in
maintenance at the most appropriate time,
along with performing real time diagnostics
in the case of a power failure.

Recent developments in Building
Automation System open protocol
communications technology allow all of the
critical systems within a hospital, like HVAC,
lighting, security and electrical power to
communicate with one another in a more
intelligent way, both improving the healing
environment for patients and allowing for
more efficient facilities management.
Often a BMS is installed and
commissioned, with predicted
parameters that are suitable at that time.
But, whilst hospitals are only built once,
over time the use of the building and the
services delivered within that building
will inevitably change. Additions to the
building or changes in its configuration
without major investment to upgrade
environmental systems and controls at

Power
Hospitals demand consistent and
constantly available power to ensure safe,
efficient and cost effective operations.
Although the installation and management
of critical power environments are both
complicated and costly, losing the power
supply simply isn’t an option when
patients’ lives are on the line.
Hospitals are often directly connected to
electricity substations to minimise the risk
of power cuts. Nonetheless, it’s vital that
hospitals have a power outage solution

45

44-46 HVAC – Schneider.indd 45

18/07/2016 10:41