CIAT chillers and heat pumps have been installed at James Paget University Hospital’s new £15 million modular ward in Norfolk, a facility that James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust says ‘will help shape construction of future NHS hospitals in the UK’.
The hospital team is using the ward as a case study for the wider NHS Trust to trial various design principles and investigate outcomes for patients, infection control, and impact on staff.
Two AquaCIAT LD chillers with air-source heat pumps are being used for heating, and two AquaCIAT Caleo heat pumps to deliver hot water, for the 28-bed concept decant ward. The high-specification project was undertaken to comply with HTM guidelines, which include detailed requirements on the design, maintenance, and operation, of ventilation in healthcare premises. The Trust says that the ward ‘provides an innovative environment’ for patients while ongoing remedial work takes place at James Paget Hospital, ahead of a planned new hospital on the site scheduled for 2030 as part of the government’s New Hospital Programme.
“Infection control is vital in any healthcare environment,” said Laurie Moulding, Technical manager at Health Spaces, the design consultant for the James Paget University Hospital project. “One hundred percent fresh tempered air needs to be delivered to each ward, and isolation areas at up to 15 changes an hour. This creates a constant cooling or heating demand depending on the season, which the CIAT chillers and heat pumps successfully deliver. The heat pumps’ energy efficiency is also a considerable benefit for hospitals – they are extremely energy-efficient and classified as renewable energy.”
The chillers are based on quiet-running scroll compressors, which deliver on the ward’s need for decibel levels to be kept low for patients to rest. The heat pumps and chillers, running on a low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant, have a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.
“We decided to choose CIAT after doing some value engineering, looking into performance, quality, reliability and safety,” said Shaun Lamming, head of Operations at Dixon Group, the mechanical contractor for the James Paget University Hospital project.
“The James Paget University Hospital modular ward is an outstanding development, which has the potential to change the way that the NHS builds hospitals in the future,” added Richard Featherstone, CIAT Sales engineer. “We are delighted that CIAT was chosen to provide the high-quality, high-efficiency chiller and heat pump solution required for the project.”
