Medical Construction & Design (MCD) is the industry's leading source for news and information and reaches all disciplines involved in the healthcare construction and design process.
Issue link: https://mcdmag.epubxp.com/i/909550
MCDM AG.COM | NOV EMBER / DECEMBER 2017 | Medical Construction & Design 53 Products UnityPoint Health – Meriter, located in Madison, Wisconsin, has been recognized three times as a "100 Top Hospitals" and is part of one of the nation's most integrated health systems. Its dedication to providing comprehensive, coordinated care through clinics, hospital and home care services for patients located in South Central Wisconsin underscores a commitment to every part of the hospital. This includes the boiler plant, where the hospital recently replaced the industrial boilers it uses for heat, hot water, humidifi cation and sterilization, with innova- tive boilers from Miura. "When it came time to replace our units, there were a number of reasons why we switched to Miura," explained Ryan Unzicker, Meriter's fa- cilities manager. Among these reasons were just how quickly the units generated steam — a critical concern in Madison, Wisconsin, where the average winter temperature is about 20 degrees. Maintaining a comfortable temperature in a hospital facil- ity is essential. However, most boilers require long periods of time to recover after the output has been adjusted down during lower demand hours, in order to save energy or reduce wear and tear. Because many boilers use a fi retube design, they are required to heat very large amounts of water and often take hours to reach full steam. Instead, Miura uses its "fl oating header" concept that produces steam in less than fi ve minutes from a cold start. "Miura boilers recover very quickly," notes Unzicker. "They start up within a few minutes and begin producing steam. We have been able to put at least 60 pounds of steam (per square inch) in the entire hospital sys- tem within about 15 minutes or so, where it used to take the old boilers hours to recover." "On-Demand Steam" pro- vides comfort, but also allows the hospital to take full advan- tage of substantial cost savings, since the boilers can be turned off when output is not required and turned on as needed. This advantage saves the hospital about 20 percent each year in fuel costs as compared to other boiler systems. The fi ve new boilers pur- chased provided the capacity needed for heat, hot water, sterilization, humidifi cation and other requirements, while using less fuel and producing fewer emissions than tradi- tional boilers. They were also engineered to fi re automati- cally with an advanced control system and modulate them- selves (step-fi red), maintaining pressure as needed and rotating so that all boilers ran about the same number of hours. A modular approach also made it easy to achieve an N+1 system, a redundancy required for hospitals that enhances overall reliability, since users never sacrifi ce production due to annual inspections. Plus, the boilers are compact, reducing the amount of costly square footage requirements. "Our boiler plant isn't that big," added Unzicker. "We took three boilers out — a 1,200 horsepower and two 600 horse- power boilers — and replaced them with fi ve 300 horsepower boilers and we're even consid- ering a sixth boiler. I do like the fact that you can get around pretty easily, making routine maintenance much simpler." Visit miuraboiler.com. Unique steam heat system provides quick comfort on cold mornings in Wisconsin hospital Comfort on Demand From top: Ryan Unzicker, Meriter's facilities manager, reviews one of fi ve Miura boilers with Vince Andrea of AMS Steam Products of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. > UnityPoint Health – Meriter, located in Madison, Wisconsin, has been recognized three times as a "100 Top Hospitals." BOILERS