Sustainability in Closed Loop Chilled Water Systems

There are many opportunities to make the Healthcare system more sustainable. We want to reduce the money we send to utility companies and have more health care dollars available for healthcare. The LEED process [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] provides additional opportunities. Building LEED Silver hospitals is not only in keeping with some government jurisdictional guidelines [Alberta and British Columbia in Canada] for example] but it can free up substantial operating dollars for health care programs and services. Facility utility costs can account for 2 to 5 % of a modern hospital’s budget. To further define this number, large facilities can have an annual utility budget of well over $4,000,000.00. At our Campus the annual utility bill is over $ 12,000,000.00, this is after an extensive energy management program which saves the equivalent of $ 2,000,000.00 annually. Using approaches that ensure heat transfer surfaces are operating efficiently make up a significant part of the overall operation strategy of any facility. It is generally more typical for project teams too look at approaches such as heat recovery wheels and/or heat pipe heat recovery systems. It is important to remember that coils operating efficiently can have a huge impact in the performance of any facility. This paper outlines one such strategy and also discusses LEED and sustainability in general. Closed loop systems can experience significant contaminant fouling and create performance penalties for system energy efficiency. Optimizing operation and control of the system to maximize performance relative to building load and ensuring that the condition of the chilled water and heat transfer services are efficient can be a successful energy initiative. Systems operating at peak capacities take on more importance when clinical and laboratory departments can be impacted. Faced with