Hospital Boiler Room Renovation

Client Background

This local Las Vegas hospital is not only a home for healthcare but also a cultivated learning center for graduate students. Using evidence-based medicine to treat their patients, this major hospital understands that the base of patient care relies on safety and functionality in order to provide optimal care.

Challenge

A few years ago our client approached CWF with a need for an updated system, which would equire a full renovation of their current basement boiler room. Our customer desired a comfort heating and domestic retrofit of the previous boilers and hot water storage tanks. The previous boiler plant was considered “state of the art” about 30 years prior to today and was in need of eplacement in order to keep up with current efficiency and safety standards. The previous system consisted of four central plant boilers -two for hydronic heating and two for domestic hot water- and were operating with a common vented boiler flue stack design. The former domestic boiler system delivered hot water to a hot water storage tank of up to 1,650-gallon capacity.

Solution

With the development of more efficient boilers, pumps, controls and flue design capabilities, CWF was able to assist in engineering a design system for optimum efficiency, fuel, and electrical consumption savings (via VFD packages) as well as an environmental strategy of reducing the emissions of the boilers into the atmosphere. We selected Raypak MVB 3000 Million BTU/Hr Hydronic unit with Category VI venting for optimum overall boiler efficiency. The MVB - Modulating Vertical Boiler comes with a design package that allows access for standard doorways and is perfect for small space environments. Due to the boiler room being in the basement we were challenged by the hospital's footprint, elevators and doorways for our installation. Raypak MVB boiler was coupled with an intelligent controls package with digital touchscreen, remote monitoring and BMS capabilities as well as an engineered stack-flue configuration to overcome the location of the hospital basement final location. In collaboration with D23 Systems they provided replacement hydronic heating system pumps and new instantaneous domestic (potable) water heaters, replacing the existing gas-fired domestic water heaters. The Raypak MVB exceeds emissions Low NOx - BAAQMD Rule 9-7 for environmental concerns and the unit is proudly made in the USA. The instantaneous domestic water heaters are DynaFlo pre-piped, packaged systems by Camus Hydronics. These heaters are ideal for small-footprint applications requiring consistent domestic (potable) hot water delivery by using available heating system hot water. This equipment utilizes a double wall brazed plate heat exchanger, 3-way valve with a PID-based touchscreen controller, and patented IntelliFLO technology for precise temperature control (+/-2degF).

Outcome

CWF designed the system to operate with our customers existing building management system allowing our customers the ability to remotely monitor, adjust and respond to equipment and plant needs as they arise (I.E faults, failures, seasonal ambient temperature changes) CWF was able to engineer a total boiler operational plant without the use of domestic hot water storage tanks, knowing that removing domestic hot water storage tanks is a practical risk-reduction measure that supports infection prevention, strengthens a hospital’s water management program, and ultimately keeps its patients and staff safe. Additionally, the hospital will benefit from this more efficient, cost-effective solution by reducing standby losses, lowering maintenance costs, and freeing up space for operational use. In conclusion, CWF was able to redesign a 30-year central plant, and add energy efficient equipment, that meets and exceeds current green 4-star applications. CWF was able to perform complete central plant demo, removal, installation and start up with an incredible short five day window. With a team of four people CWF performed dual 12 hour day and night time shifts and was able to bring the hospital central plant online as projected and scheduled.