Auburn Community Hospital completes project for cooler operating rooms, lower energy bills

AUBURN, N.Y. — Contractors have completed a project to install a new cooling system at Auburn Community Hospital, which reduces the health-care facility’s heating and air-conditioning energy use by 50 percent.

It also saves the hospital more than $220,000 in energy costs annually, Ingersoll Rand said in a news release. The hospital plans to reinvest the savings in patient care, the firm added.

In pursuing the savings, Auburn Community Hospital collaborated with Dublin, Ireland–based Trane, a provider of air-conditioning and energy-services products and a brand of Ingersoll Rand (NYSE: IR).

Ingersoll Rand said the hospital has six operating rooms where surgeries are performed daily. Between the “high volume” of operations and the hospital’s previous cooling equipment, the temperature and humidity in those operating rooms “were less than optimal.”

The facility’s new chillers now generate cooler air “more efficiently,” and provide more “consistent and comfortable” temperature levels for patients and staff, the release stated. The system also uses data to ensure the equipment runs “as efficiently as possible.”

The new chillers reduce energy use 50 percent by using water “more efficiently than the legacy system,” the hospital said. It also ensures performance of the air-handling systems, which generate cooler, dryer air that is circulated throughout the building. In addition, the hospital monitors energy usage, allowing the building manager to adjust the system to keep it running “at top performance.”

 “Improving the building’s air systems improves our bottom line, and increases comfort for patients and staff. We put the savings back into the hospital to ensure the best patient experience possible,” Matt Chadderdon, VP of communications for the hospital, said in the release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com