Optimizing HVAC in Hospitals: Key to Safety, Comfort, and Efficiency
November 6, 2023
A hospital’s design and functionality play a pivotal role in ensuring patient well-being and recovery. Among the myriad of elements that contribute to a hospital's efficacy, the facility's HVAC system is chief among them.
As a commercial HVAC manufacturer's representative, Hoffman & Hoffman is uniquely positioned to partner with healthcare providers, designers, and installers, to deliver ideal conditions for critical environments, such as healthcare. Our highly trained sales engineers can support your decisions from HVAC equipment and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) technology to building automation capabilities, energy management tools, and maintenance down the line.
Indoor Environmental Quality
Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) can most easily be described as the conditions inside of a building. Air quality, access to daylight and views, pleasant acoustic conditions, and occupant control over lighting and thermal comfort are all contributing factors to a building’s IEQ.
In healthcare facilities, air quality is paramount to IEQ for the overall comfort and safety of patients, physicians, and all building occupants. Precise temperature, highly effective air cleaning, controlled humidity, and pressurization control all play a role in a hospital's air quality. Lighting and acoustics, which can be impacted by HVAC systems, are important to consider for hospital IEQ as well.
Meeting a hospital’s Indoor Environmental Quality requirements, while balancing reliability, energy efficiency, and cost consciousness, is a complex orchestra. Luckily, Hoffman & Hoffman sales engineers are master conductors!
Hoffman & Hoffman has a wide breadth of industry-leading equipment offerings. We represent manufacturers who specialize in heating and cooling equipment, custom air handling, high-efficiency filtration, bipolar ionization, efficient and effective outside air conditioning, humidification /dehumidification, pressurization control, and lighting.
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Product Spotlight: Price Ultrasuite Ultrasuite® is a customizable air distribution and lighting solution specifically engineered for hospital operating rooms. High-output LED lighting combined with precision equalized laminar airflow eliminates the traditional “light ring,” opening valuable ceiling space for surgical equipment while optimizing particulate removal from the surgical zone. Conforming to all ASHRAE 170 requirements, Ultrasuite® is the perfect combination of performance, aesthetics, and efficiency. The uniform, unidirectional laminar airflow across the face of the diffuser, prevents entrainment of room air, reducing the risk of contamination in the surgical zone. Ultrasuite® allows for customizable lighting and filtration as well. Hoffman & Hoffman has a Price Ultrasuite® unit installed in our Charlotte branch office. Contact a sales engineer to learn more about it today! |
Energy Efficiency
Hospitals are energy-intensive facilities, and efficient HVAC systems are essential for managing energy consumption. Maximizing energy efficiency in complex facilities, like hospitals, requires the following:
- Communication and partnership between the owner, design and construction team, major equipment suppliers and building automation contractors.
- A high-efficiency system, which consists of numerous pieces of equipment and is designed to operate efficiently as a “sum of the parts.”
- Sustainability by design. Systems often operate optimally on day one, but over time that efficiency can degrade — sometimes quickly. Optimal system design should consider the long-term sustainability of that design. Designing as simply as possible to deliver the desired results is important and can help make system operation more sustainable.
- Owner training, preventative maintenance, building automation and predictive analytics are all particularly important components to sustaining efficiency over time.
Why Hoffman & Hoffman?
As a commercial HVAC manufacturer's representative, Hoffman & Hoffman often works with healthcare owners, designers and installers. We work with you to implement innovative solutions and commit to the well-being of your patients and staff. With our experienced sales engineers, broad equipment portfolio, and building automation and service team, we are well-positioned to address the unique challenges of hospital environments.
Our sales engineers are there for you for every step of your HVAC system’s life. We can consult on HVAC system design, advise on upgrades when new technology comes along, and help build a comprehensive maintenance schedule that keeps your system in tip-top shape.
Contact a Hoffman & Hoffman sales representative to inquire about improving an existing HVAC system or building something new: https://www.hoffman-hoffman.com/the-hoffman-way/contact/
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Ally O'Reilly
Ally O'Reilly is a Marketing Coordinator for the Hoffman Family of Companies. She enjoys learning about the ways the HVAC industry is growing and changing!
