ICS Cool Energy multi-pipe chillers and heat pumps took over from the hospital’s gas boilers, reducing heating system’s gas consumption by almost 69% in first five months of operations, and help Hull Hospitals on their way to carbon neutrality.
Commissioned in October 2022, the Hull Royal Infirmary’s new heating system is based on an ICS Cool Energy multi-pipe Aptus chiller and an set to take over from gas-fired boilers.
In the first five months of operations, the average gas consumption dropped by almost 69%, reaching a record low of 40,748 kWh in February 2023 – compared to over 221,594 kWh in February 2022.
The hospitals’ decarbonisation of heating project involving switching from gas fired boilers to renewable sources of heating is part of their ambitious Zero30 commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030. Their efforts to use sustainable technologies in buildings have been recognised many times by the industry, including winning the ‘Sustainable Achievement Award’ from the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estates Management (IHEEM) in 2021.
For the hospital, maintaining the right temperature, humidity, and air quality is essential to ensure comfortable and healthy conditions for patients’ care and staff’s comfort all day and night. Sanitary hot water is just as vital for cleaning and hygiene in a hospital environment. The existing heating plant serving two wards, office areas and seven operating theatres in the Hull Royal Infirmary, was based on 650kW gas boilers, and designed for a return hot water temperature of 80°C. This temperature range was also one of the main requirements for the new, environmentally friendlier technology.
The installed ICS Cool Energy Aptus multi-pipe unit can offer simultaneously up to 574kW of cooling and 695kW of heating, allowing the shift from a separate boiler and chiller to one single unit, reducing both operational costs and saving on energy. Featuring two completely independent water circuits, the units ensure precise temperature control for both leaving chilled and hot water. For the production of hot water, the units use renewable and recovered energy, and can replace the existing fossil-fuel boiler and chiller system to deliver both cooling and heating for the building with no direct greenhouse gas emissions.
To boost the hot water temperature to the 80°C levels desired by the hospital, the multi-pipe chiller was paired with the 429kW i-FH water-to-water heat pump. The i-FH can deliver hot water between 50°C and 80°C, with source temperatures from +5°C to +30°C, offering a unique opportunity to move to renewable energy heating.
The installation and leading pipework for this project proved to be an engineeringly complex task, requiring changes to the infrastructure and integration of the hospital’s chilled water and heat systems. Two of the old chillers were removed and the gas-boilers were temporarily kept for emergency. The hospitals’ Building Management System (BMS) was programmed to efficiently manage the old and new elements of the cooling and heating systems.
