Creating a modern and modular cooling solution for The Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University
The cooling system in the ward and office areas of The Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University was in need of an upgrade. SWEP designed a solution using prefabricated Energy Transfer Station (ETS) modules. The flexibility of these modules allowed for a fast, high-quality installation that fits into the limited available space while still being able to provide a stable and comfortable cooling environment to medical staff and patients and helping to facilitate the medical modernisation in China.
The changing landscape of Chinese medicine
Hospitals across China are increasing the importance of medical modernisation and investing more into patient-oriented medical services and infrastructure.
A hospital in need of a performance upgrade
In the beginning of 2019, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University was planning to upgrade the cooling system in the ward and office areas so the risks of hydraulic imbalance and extensive flooding would be eliminated, and more energy-efficient cooling would be evenly distributed.
The room height available for installation of an energy transfer system was only 185 cm, so any solution needed to be compact enough to fit into the space – but also provide enough power to cool the ward and office areas effectively.
The three modular cooling systems make a good fit into the small room which is only about 20 m².
A modular system designed to meet the unique needs of a hospital
SWEP systems designed a modular solution featuring 3 sets of cooling systems, which takes capacity redundancy into consideration to achieve optimal life cycle cost. For each module, a brazed plate heat exchanger B649 with a height of 1.2m is installed and can be easily moved into the ETS room. The prefabricated ETS can greatly reduce installation time while guaranteeing premium quality. By contrast, if we use the on-site built station, a 2.4 m heat exchanger will fail to fit in the room, not to mention unpredictable risks that take place during on-site installation when the quality of components is challenging to qualify.
Now when the ward is not fully occupied, the hospital can opt for low load operation by turning on 1 or 2 modules. By doing this, the power of the pump can be lowered and the risk of fouling and blocking due to low flow will be eliminated.
A dramatic improvement
The compact design enabled the ETS to be installed in the room with no problems. Equipped with a high efficiency VFD circulation pump, the power consumption is only 1/3 of a traditional station.
“We’re hoping that the successful installation and operation of this project will bring more down-to-earth facts to Chinese customers, so that they can discover and learn more about the cooling systems based on Scandinavian technologies. The advantages of the energy saving and efficient operation are expected to provide a high-quality experience to end users and help project operators save costs.” says Byran Yang, SWEP Systems Manager, APAC.
