CASE STUDY: Clare Hospital - Riverland Regional Services

SITE

First built in between 1970 and 1971, Clare Hospital (CH) is a 25-acute-bed sub-regional hospital situated in the hills and outskirts of Clare. CH is located at 41-45 North Road, Clare, South Australia.
BACKGROUND

In year 2000, Clare hospital underwent an extension and refurbishment of the Theatre, Delivery, Recovery CSSD and Support Areas. Since that time the air conditioning systems in these areas have proved to be problematic and a number of alterations and additions have been made in an effort to overcome the deciencies. System Solutions Engineering (SSE) was commissioned to investigate the mechanical system and provide engineering options. SSE was briefed by Mr Rick Jarvis who has been involved with the operation of the plant since inception and taken complaints from staff and he has also been involved with the rectication of defects and the additions to the systems since commissioning. There were many complaints regarding the system;

SSE INVESTIGATIONS

The Subject Area (Theatre, Delivery, Recovery CSSD and Support Areas) was designed as one functional/thermal zone. The air conditioner is an Air Change manufacture 100% outside air unit incorporating a heat exchanger with evaporative assistance, and two stages of heating and cooling. The operation of the system as designed, was for the control of the environment within all zones at 22 C with the location of the controlling sensor from the 1st Stage Recovery (Predominantly) and from Theatre (On Demand) when in use.
0

KEY INITIATIVES
Mechanical system upgrade New BMS Human Comfort Energy Efciency

Temperature uctuations in the Theatre (mainly cold air falling from the diffusers to work area). Temperature uctuations have been ongoing in the areas other than the Theatre. The heater bank installed during the period 2001 2003 has been problematic and the safety controls had failed, resulting in a dangerous overheating issue. (New ow switch tted) Complaints about the energy consumption in this area due to the use of the heater bank. The HEPA lters require constant adjustment and the indication is located in the ceiling space. Concerns have been raised about the pressure exerted on the exible ductwork to the HEPA lter modules. Type of pre-lter used upstream of the HEPA lters. The doors between the Theatre Area and the main Hospital need to remain open to allow return air to get back to ACU-5 and this area is a transfer area from the change rooms to the Theatre area and the Hospital would rather have the doors closed. The supply air fan is continually breaking causing the unit to fail. The wiring within the air conditioning unit and the heater bank is poorly installed and difcult to fault nd. The wiring has not been numbered, tidied up and proper wiring diagrams provided for the manuals.

KEY OUTCOMES
Electrical Energy Savings: 30,318kWh pa or 109,146 MJ pa (4% site reduction) 9 kWh/m2 pa or 32 MJ/m2 pa Cost Savings: $4780.00 pa $1.40 per m2 pa Payback Period: Just above 10 years Greenhouse Gas Savings: 30 Tonnes of CO2 (4% site reduction) Equivalent to taking 7 average passenger vehicles off the road 9.15 kg CO2 per m2 pa Internal Rate of Return: 7.3%

During the rst months of operation the use of the Theatre at (18 C) below the designed set point of 22 C and this resulted in complaints of too cold in all other areas. The reality was found that the Theatre should infact be a separate thermal zone to ensure that its operation at a differing setpoint so that it does not affect the other adjacent spaces.
0 0

In order to provide a separate thermal zone within the original design, a heater bank of approximately 12 kW (4 stages) was installed with the conditioner being controlled by the Theatre sensor at 18 C and the heater controlled by the sensor in the 1st stage recovery. This theoretically allows the Theatre to control the air conditioning for cooling and heating to satisfy the thermal zone of the Theatre and the remaining areas to be zoned by the 4stage re-heater.
0

KEY CONTACTS
Department of Health Mr John Diplock Project Manager Tel: (08) 8226 6354 Email: john.diplock@dhs.sa.gov.au System Solutions Engineering Mr Brad Maynard Managing Director Tel: (08) 8333 1855 Email: bmaynard@syssoleng.com.au

Whilst this approach does provide zoning with the Theatre as the driver of the air conditioning demand and the heater bank, will in most cases be fully utilised to offset the lower supply air to achieve a 4 C rise to satisfy the remaining air conditioned space. If the load within the remaining area is lower than design and the theatre is at designed temperature, the 12 kW heater may not be large enough and this may be the reason why there are still condition complaints from the Delivery, Recovery CSSD and Support Areas.
0

CASE STUDY: Clare Hospital - Riverland Regional Services

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

SSE designed two main projects; project 1 addressing the complaints and problematic mechanical system; Project 2 aiming energy efciency of the mechanical system through the Building Management System (BMS).
PROJECT 1

New temperature sensors complete with after hours push buttons where the plant is scheduled to run rather than run 24 hours per day. Logical and user friendly active graphics using CAD plans for setpoint manipulation via graphical hot spots. Expand the current systems as they are currently set up. WEB Enabled the existing dedicated BAS PC located in the Hospitals Computer Room and arrange for a PSTN line, an ADSL connection and router for the BAS System. Set up VPN access via the WEB and provide a notebook computer with all required software to allow remote access via either a dial up connection or alternative ADSL connection.
STRATEGIES IMPLEMENTED

Mechanical system upgrade mainly at operating theatres and area serve by ACU-5, was scoped under the project. Installed new hard supply air duct between four (4) HEPA lters and existing supply air duct. Installed new portion of supply air duct, including the existing in-line supply air fan with upgraded motor and new variable speed drive, water cooling coil, air lters and balancing dampers. Extended the two return air ducts and connect to the new supply air duct at the fan suction side. Installed new air-cooled chiller, to serve the single cooling coil only, inclusive of circulating pump, valves, piping electrical and controls. Installed new D.D.C. control system to control the operation of the chillercirculating pump-cooling coil and HEPA lters-supply air fan arrangements, suitable for connection to future BMS system and inclusive of one variable speed drive to the supply air fan. Associated electrical work. Removed the existing heater bank serving the non theatre areas served by ACU 7. Replaced the evaporative assistance pump with an AIRAH type for ACU 7. Replaced the dump valve with a motorised ball valve type for ACU-7. Replaced fan belts and pullies on the supply and exhaust air paths of ACU-7 A lter plenum for ACU-7 to house new lters of either four peak or V Form type to replace the existing air ltration. Reconnected the outdoor air exible connection to the wall of the lter plenum. Installed re/smoke damper in the new return air duct and interlock with the existing re/smoke damper, so the two operate simultaneously and in the same direction.
PROJECT 2

Fire shutdown of all air conditioning in re mode. Run status for all plant. Fault status for all plant based on scheduled to run and not running logic. An architectural graphic (active) for the entire site and further graphics for each specic area to assist with interrogation. Thermal controls to allow staging of capacity to meet demand. Time schedules independent to each unit to allow tailoring of operational parameters to meet specic usage patterns. After hours override and green LED run indication.
BENEFITS

Monthly cumulative electricity consumption graph compares electrical energy consumption between 2003-04 against 2006-07 nancial year. This is an annual electricity reduction of 30,319 kWh which is equivalent to annual reduction of 30 Tonnes of CO2 emissions.
800,000 Monthly Electricity Consumption (kWh) 700,000 600,000 500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 0 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2003/04 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

2005/06

This project involves mainly the BMS aiming for energy efciency. The entire system was designed to incorporate the latest software revisions inclusive of the Automated Logic Systems including the ultimate facility to WEB enable the system and connection to the intranet. For each of the air conditioners the following control elements were provided;

The Clare Hospital Mechanical Project is another environmentally responsible site that System Solutions Engineering is proud to showcase our clients.

CONTACT US
Email: fforbes@syssoleng.com.au Street Address Level 1, 75 Fullarton Road Kent Town South Australia 5067 Telephone: +61 08 8333 1855 Facsimile: +61 08 8333 1866