The primary role of an HVAC company working for a hospital is to improve indoor air quality and mitigating airborne transmission of diseases. Hence, HVAC engineering is different from a typical building HVAC system, where comfort is the main objective. Hence, an HVAC Company must comply with guidelines on hospital HVAC system filtration, temperature, humidity, air change, pressurization, and exhaust. A good HVAC Company or a Clean Room Company must follow American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers’ (ASHRAE) HVAC Design Manual for Hospitals and Clinics which talks about infection control criteria, while also being reliable, low-maintenance and energy-efficient.
Summarized Version of HVAC manual for Hospitals by ASHRAE
The HVAC manual describes the relationship between infection control and HVAC design and explains how the different components of the HVAC system can influence the transmission of airborne microorganisms. In fact, a 50-page chapter is devoted to designing various types of critical rooms and areas within hospitals, such as operating rooms, isolation rooms, pharmacies, labs, and imaging suites, and includes new data on energy use by various types of imaging systems. Another chapter is devoted to designing renovations with an emphasis on system upgrades and infection control during construction.
Why right HVAC Design is crucial for Hospitals?
A good HVAC Design is crucial as hospitals contain numerous systems and devices that produce significant amounts of heat, such as imaging systems, refrigerators, and intense lighting. A good hospital HVAC Company must meet all performance parameters e.g., air quality, air changes, filtration, temperature, and humidity, be reliable, minimize maintenance requirements and be energy-efficient. Also, the firm must think about sustainability which includes the significance of the environment.
As the patients are much more sensitive than the general population in terms of the impact of temperature, humidity, and air velocity. Moreover, each area of the hospital is likely to see a wide variety of patient sizes, ages, and acuity, reqtúring the HVAC system to be highly flexible. For example, the Surgery Department which is the economic engines for hospitals and generates maximum complaints in terms of temperature and humidity generated by a lack of understanding of psychrometrics. Unfortunately, the general public, hospital operating engineers and even many consulting engineers lack a deep understanding of psychometry. Hence, a good HVAC Design Company must work in close liaisoning with the builders at the very beginning phase to avoid any further complaints and train the staff accordingly.
Hence, small things matter most. MG Cooling Solutions, an HVAC Company in India, designs HVAC Projects for hospitals quite precisely.
