The Life Care Hilton private hospital in KwaZulu-Natal is saving about R45 000 a month

The brand new R200m, 94-bed Life Care Hilton Private Hospital was recently completed. The multi-disciplinary hospital will enhance Life Cares Healthcare’s patient-care offering in the greater area with five operating theatres and over 40 associated resident specialists.

Going green

Calculations show that the hospital will use 890 MWh less per year to run. That’s roughly the equivalent to 120 houses electrical requirements, which is substantial. Energy-efficient LED lighting with motion sensors consume considerably less electrical energy and reduce the heat load in the building.

Heat pumps provide hot water resulting in only a quarter of the electricity demand being required, compared to traditional element-based hot water systems.

Thermowise was tasked with providing hot and cold water reticulation from the hot water plant room to the different rooms and facilities. This included the hot water plant room itself with four   4000ℓ Thermowise high pressure storage vessels, four x 45kW Thermowise air-to-water heat pumps, the fire reticulation into the building, the cold and hot water booster pumps and the fire jockey pumps.

Cold water is supplied from a bulk cold water storage tank, it is boosted into the building and into the hot water plant room. The water is heated by means of Thermowise air-to-water heat pumps and then boosted into the building with hot water booster pumps.

The design and design specification was done by Wynand Venter from Dihlase Consulting Engineers. Thermowise and Dihlase worked hand in hand for 12 months and communication was critical to meet all deadlines and to ensure that all design criteria were met.

Savings

Some specification were suggested by the professionals and some were brought to the table by Thermowise. The original design for the water reticulation was done in copper, but Thermowise suggested that PEX/Al/PEX (PPR) piping to be used instead and saved the Life Care Hilton Private Hospital about R800 000.

The client will save in the region of R45 000 per month on their electricity consumption by utilising Thermowise air-to-water heat pumps for all domestic hot water needs.

The project was started in June 2014 and everything was completed in time to handover to the Life Care Hilton Private Hospital in August 2015.