7/29/2019 Clare Hospital Case Study

1/2

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 deficiencies.

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

rectification of defects and the additions to

the systems since commissioning.

There were many complaints regarding the

system;

Temperature fluctuations in the Theatre

(mainly cold air falling from the diffusers to

work area).

Temperature fluctuations have been

ongoing in the areas other than theTheatre.

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 flow

switch fitted)

Complaints about the energy consumption

in this area due to the use of the heater

bank.

The HEPA filters require constant

adjustment and the indication is located

in the ceiling space.

Concerns have been raised about the

pressure exerted on the flexible ductworkto the HEPA filter modules.

Type of pre-filter used upstream of the

HEPA filters.

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 difficult to fault find. The wiring has

not been numbered, tidied up and

proper wiring diagrams provided for the

manuals.

CASE STUDY:

Clare Hospital - Riverland Regional Services

SSE INVESTIGATIONS

The Subject Area (Theatre, Delivery,

Recovery CSSD and Support Areas) was

designed as one functional/thermal

zone. The air conditioner is an AirChange 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 220C with the location

of the controlling sensor from the 1st

Stage Recovery (Predominantly) and from

Theatre (On Demand) when in use.

During the first months of operation the

use of the Theatre at (180C) below the

designed set point of 220C 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.

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 180C

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 tosatisfy the thermal zone of the Theatre and

the remaining areas to be zoned by the 4-

stage re-heater.

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 40C

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 stillcondition complaints from the Delivery,

Recovery CSSD and Support Areas.

KEY INITIATIVESMechanical system upgrade

New BMS

Human Comfort

Energy Efficiency

KEY OUTCOMESElectrical 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 CO

2

(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%

KEY CONTACTSDepartment 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

7/29/2019 Clare Hospital Case Study

2/2

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

SSE designed two main projects; project 1

addressing the complaints and problematic

mechanical system; Project 2 aiming

energy efficiency of the mechanical

system through the Building Management

System (BMS).

PROJECT 1

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 filters 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 filters

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 chiller-

circulating pump-cooling coil and

HEPA filters-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 filter plenum for ACU-7 to house new

filters of either four peak or V Form type

to replace the existing air filtration.

Reconnected the outdoor air flexible

connection to the wall of the filter

plenum.

Installed fire/smoke damper in the new

return air duct and interlock with the

existing fire/smoke damper, so the two

operate simultaneously and in the same

direction.

PROJECT 2

This project involves mainly the BMS aiming

for energy efficiency. The entire system was

designed to incorporate the latest software

revisions inclusive of the Automated Logic

Systems including the ultimate facility toWEB enable the system and connection to

the intranet.

For each of the air conditioners the

following control elements were provided;

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 arecurrently 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

Fire shutdown of all air conditioning in fire

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

specific 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 specific usage

patterns.

After hours override and green LED runindication.

BENEFITS

Monthly cumulative electricity

consumption graph compares electrical

energy consumption between 2003-04

against 2006-07 financial year. This is an

annual electricity reduction of 30,319 kWh

which is equivalent to annual reduction of

30 Tonnes of CO2

emissions.

The Clare Hospital Mechanical Project is

another environmentally responsible site

that System Solutions Engineering is proud

to showcase our clients.

CONTACT USEmail: 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

CASE STUDY: Clare Hospital - Riverland Regional Services

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

Jul A ug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

MonthlyElectricityConsumption

(kWh)

2003/04 2005/06