When it came time for Luminis Health Doctors Community Medical Center (LHDCMC) of Lanham, MD, to update its aging HVAC infrastructure, it quickly awarded the business to the Daikin Applied team in Washington, DC, which has helped the hospital meet its patient care and comfort needs for years. The project leads helped LHDCMC secure a $160,000 energy efficiency rebate from the local utility provider, and the updates will save the facility over $70,000 per year in energy costs. The work had to be completed in the midst of a shutdown necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Founded in 1975 by a team of physicians committed to improving local access to care, the center provides medical and surgical services to residents in Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties in Maryland (suburbs of Washington, DC) and across the state’s Eastern Shore. It joined the Luminis Health system in 2019 to form LHDCMC and is a nationally recognized nonprofit hospital that has grown into an ultramodern operation with more than 200 beds.
To minimize the effects of the HVAC overhaul on patient care and staff productivity, the project was divided into phases. Phase one was slated to take place during the winter months to help moderate the demand on the equipment for chilled water. Phase two was scheduled for summer to help reduce the demand on the hospital’s boiler for steam and hot water. “I have never worked with a group that is so efficient and can get things done with minimal disruption,” said Jerry Dyer, LHDCMC’s director of Plant Operations.
The turnkey package included new air- and water-cooled chillers, hot water and steam boilers, cooling towers, chilled and condenser water systems, hot water pumps, and chiller and boiler plant controls. The Daikin team partnered with an MEP engineer to ensure an efficient and code-compliant design. In addition, the team employed seasoned partners in the mechanical, electrical, and controls trades to ensure a high-quality outcome.
The solution included Daikin’s Magnitude® magnetic-bearing WMC and Pathfinder® AWV chillers to form a hybrid that uses a combination of air-cooling technology in the winter months and water-cooled technology in the summer months to meet hospital loads. Magnetic-bearing technology eliminates oil, mechanical seals, wear surfaces, and gears, resulting in longer machine life and increased reliability.
Using direct drive technology, integral variable-frequency drives, and ozone-friendly R134a refrigerant, the Magnitude chiller can be up to 40 percent more efficient than standard centrifugal chillers. The variable drive responds according to cooling demand rather than operating at a constant rate. The award-winning Pathfinder is one of the most efficient air-cooled screw chillers on the market. It features proprietary, variable-volume ratio®, single-rotor compressor technology and fully-variable-speed ECM condenser fan motors. Further, the chillers operate quietly and reliably—ideal for the health care environment.
To further optimize energy consumption, the Daikin team specified a state-of-the-art controls platform, leveraging the latest techniques for running the chillers and accessory equipment at the lowest energy consumption rate possible. The controls also provide facility operators with real-time energy data in terms of kilowatts per ton of performance.
In the midst of the carefully-timed schedule—but just after the chillers and cooling towers were set in place—Maryland initiated a COVID-19 shutdown, except for essential services. Daikin Applied and its dedicated partners worked to finish the project with a renewed sense of urgency and care. The upgraded HVAC system, with magnetic-bearing chillers and controls optimization, will cut LHDCMC’s energy use to 23 percent of the current chiller plant consumption.
Calculate the true cost of ownership with Daikin’s chiller payback calculator: https://chillerpayback.daikinapplied.com/chiller
For more information, visit DaikinApplied.com. MCAA thanks Daikin for being an MCAA sponsor.
