Texas facility’s worldfirst ‘green’ milestone

As Bruce Anderson, vice-president, Marketing, CES Group LLC (of which Temtrol is a Group company), explains, when America’s Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, a paediatric facility built to fieldleading environmental performance standards, expanded recently, the hospital’s project team selected Temtrol’s FANWALL technology for the air handlers used for a new MRI surgical unit “to provide energy-efficient, critical ventilation”.

When the facility’s owner and operator Seton Healthcare Network first began developing the design for the new Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas – the region’s only standalone paediatric facility – the project team set out to establish, and subsequently achieve, what they described as “a compelling vision” – to “heal children without harming the environment” – no simple task for a power-intensive facility running a range of sophisticated medical and other equipment. The 500,000 ft2 medical facility, which opened in July 2007, achieved the goal through “sustainable design”, “green materials”, and energy-efficient systems. Among the latter were air handlers from Temtrol, installed during the original construction project. In addition, the paediatric facility has recently installed a Temtrol unit with Fanwall technology that manages critical ventilation in a new 6,500 ft2 intra-operative MRI surgical area (Fanwall fan array systems are available in the UK from Moducel, part of the Eaton-Williams Group – see panel opposite and HEJ – March 2008). In March 2009 the US Green Building Council recognised the Dell Children’s Medical Center with LEED-Platinum certification, the highest of four achievement levels under its LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) internationally recognised green building certification system, and indeed the hospital is the world’s first to achieve LEED-Platinum status.

Early decision to ‘build green’