HVAC & Engineering Theatre Seminars

1. How to save energy through real time monitoring systems in MGPS.
2. How to save energy through control with AI technology in MGPS.
3. How the integration of machine and drives lead to saving energy in the Medical Gas world.

Cancer care and treatment is rapidly advancing. New technologies, medicines and treatment regimens are being developed all the time. This means that specialist cancer care facilities need to be able to adapt and respond to these developments, ensuring that they can continue providing the latest and most advanced treatments to patients, long into a building’s lifespan.

The new Veilndre Cancer Centre (nVCC) will include nine Linear Accelerator bunkers, designed to accommodate not only the “day one” technology, but future technologies including three MR LINACs and higher energies. The client, design team and contractor, are working closely together to ensure required flexible capacity is met. There is inherent flexibility to the planning of the department through building the bunkers at ground level, with wide spans, access to the exterior for servicing (as well as daylight) and providing areas of soft space adjacent to and above the treatment rooms.

Features of the design to ensure flexibility include:
- areas of increased shielding than strictly required for day one.
- knock out panels to allow for installation of MR LINAC magnet and static ring.
- services routed and planned for day one and future scenarios – focussing on planned transformation rather than demolition and disruption.
- individual AHUs per bunker to prevent a single point of failure, minimising interruptions, or delays to treatment.
All the while, maximising daylight with pleasant waiting spaces on the façade and roof lights at maze entrances, and use of natural materials throughout.

The nVCC is being designed to serve current patient throughput as well as projected requirements and to be able to expand services and modalities in the future without replanning, additional shielding or rerouting services that would cause extensive disruption to on-going treatment provision. Additionally, the three bunkers earmarked for MR LINACs are located such that most of the department and patient areas would not need to be shut down or treatment paused during the installation. Designing for future flexibility is possible, but the required flexibility needs to be defined and considered holistically for the most efficient result.

Today we see rapid developments in technology, new legislation increasing the pressure to reduce emissions whilst \at the same time budgets either reducing or failing to keep pace with increasing costs and requirements The HTM (Health Technical Memoranda) have been in place for many years and are regularly reviewed and up dated. The pace of technological and legislative change can though leave some aspects of the HTM’s looking a little left behind. This presentation considers just three areas of how the standby generation part of HMT-06 has been left behind and hence how it could be quickly updated.
This presentation will look at
• Setting the scene
• Emissions
o Medium Combustion Plant Directive and local requirements
o Catalytic Converters
o Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF)
o Selective Catalytic Convertors
• How newer and cleaner engines change this landscape set in the context of
o Rating / sizing of generating sets
o First set load acceptance
o The various types of load used in a modern healthcare setting
• Resetting the dial on site testing of generating sets
• Aligning HTM’s directly with ISO and other standards

The demand for cutting-edge, sustainable, and integrated clinical spaces is paramount. Our presentation delves into clinical space design, focusing on operating theatres of the future, critical and isolated power systems, and the overarching need for compliant, digital-first approaches to clinical space management. We address the imperative of increasing patient and clinician safety, ensuring business continuity, and meeting stringent regulatory compliance standards through innovative design and digital transformation. Join us to explore tested and validated reference architectures, sustainable electrification strategies, and the role of digital technology in shaping the future of clinical spaces.

As the UK looks to transform and decarbonise its energy generation to meet net zero carbon targets, heat networks have a vital role to play, the application of this concept lends itself to the typical campus nature of healthcare estates.
District heating in broad terms is a decentralised heating network, the presentation will aim to sumerise how modern heat networks are an efficient means to provide heat to end users in place of more traditional stand alone boiler systems, less efficient technologies and how this can be applied into the health sector. With the introduction of the Energy Act 2023 there are likely to be implications for healthcare estates should they fall within an identified heat network zone.
The transition to heat networks means we must embrace a wider, more coordinated approach with the wider community relative the to the use of heat, we must also align this thinking with existing energy infrastructure and target greater, more deliverable economic and carbon efficient outcomes.
Campus style estates lend themselves to scaled networks, with large thermal and electrical loads, there are clear opportunities for the development of schemes with flexibility that could enable future changes in heat sources to be accommodated.

We are all looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint and improve our sustainability.

Did you know that the boiler house provides an ideal starting point to make small improvements with big impacts?

This session will look at how you run your existing operation and where you can make some efficiency gains. We will explore the contributing factors to your boiler house net zero journey and how with minimal impact you can keep on track and make a sustainable impact on your current activities.

This presentation will be delivered similarly to the presentations that I have delivered for our existing client base (WSP, ARUP, Spire Healthcare, NHS Estates).

The presentation will consist of the following sections:
- Presentation Learning Outcomes.
- An Understanding of HTM 03 01 Part A - from a validation point of view (with flowchart).
- 5 Stages of critical system handover roadmap.
- HTM 03 01 Part B Operational Management of a system (with flowchart).
- Verification vs Validation slide (due to industry confusion around both topics).
- Critical ventilation report walkthrough with particular attention to Appendix 1 & 2 (Checklists).
- Mathematical information for calculations and fan laws explained.
- Specialist area considerations with a focus on control strategy and barn theatres.

The presentation is intended for educational purposes only with the sole outcome of increasing knowledge across the health estates and reducing the impact of substandard installations within our industry.

It is preferable that the presentation is delivered on the first day of Healthcare Estates.

The NHS uses ventilation to keep patients, staff and visitors safe in what are known as “critical” areas of the healthcare estate. In the aftermath of Covid-19 the number of areas deemed “critical” has expanded. This means that the burden on the NHS to maintain the plant that supplies the air flows and ensures the correct pressure cascade has increased. It also has meant that the amount of energy used in critical ventilation has increased.

Areas that previous to Covid-19 were not deemed to require measured rates of ventilation have now come under the guidance of the HTM03-01. General wards and waiting areas in hospitals are also being considered as areas where increased ventilation is being provided with a minimum of 6 air changes an hour becoming the accepted norm, which is significantly greater than the CIBSE occupancy guidance levels. Where air handling units are not supplying enough air the room ventilation rate can be supplemented by opening windows and/or the provision of air scrubbers.

This presentation will discuss how technology, for example links to Building Management Systems and phone Apps can allow Engineers in Estates to be more pro-active in their management of critical Air Handling Units.

There will also be discussion of new fan technology and the most up-to-date AHUs which are built to be self-managing and send alerts to the BMS and also mobile Apps when there is a fault.

NHS Net Zero Carbon Building Standard (NZCBS) has been introduced, ensuring a consistent level of ambition when it comes to the environmental performance of the NHS estate. But what potential benefits are there to adopting principles which exceed the standards?

Our findings sit within the context of the Cavell Centre programme, which proposes a blueprint for the transformation of primary and community care facilities in England. These proposed centres pioneer an approach to standardised yet adaptable planning, with a specific approach to MMC, net zero carbon, and environments for wellbeing. Following this, Medical Architecture were commissioned alongside Architype to design one of six pilot schemes, and the only one designed to Passivhaus standards.

The building will offer ultra-low, net-zero aligned operational energy performance whilst delivering a very healthy and comfortable internal environment. Integrated structural and services strategies, judicious use of biobased materials and a standardised, MMC-ready façade has enabled embodied carbon to be dramatically reduced below the NZCBS limits.

The amount of active mechanical plant has been radically reduced through a strategy of ‘concrete core activation’, ensuring the internal mass of the building is held at close to ambient temperature all year-round.

To maximise the building’s flexibility and repeatability, the design team developed a site-agnostic scheme that would enable Passivhaus certification regardless of which way the building was orientated – something that has not been achieved before.

Exceeding the NZCBS, the design ensures Passivhaus accreditation for no additional cost, whilst guaranteeing significant operational savings over the life of the building.

Historically, setting ambitious targets for sustainability has been seen as an additional cost to be budgeted for, leading to delivery of the minimum requirements. This project provides the first evidence of the significant long-term cost benefits to be achieved by adopting an ambitious approach to sustainable design from the earliest stages.