Overview

Overview:
Sarah Cannon Cancer Hospital tower provides critical health care services in Plano, Texas. Located on the Medical City Plano campus, the 138,000-square-foot facility holds 90 patient beds as well as additional operating and recovery rooms. The new tower includes 30 specially designed burn and trauma ICU rooms on the third floor that can provide emergency treatment in the event of a mass casualty event that results in multiple serious burn injuries.

Recently, the U.S. Green Building Council designated the four-story hospital with its Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) v4 Gold certification – the first hospital to achieve this level of certification. It is the second health care project to earn LEED v4 certification, and the first in Texas.

Project:
When Texas AirSystems was picked to select HVAC equipment for the new tower expansion, the team chose three main focuses to create a safe, efficient, and comfortable hospital:

  1. Protecting indoor air quality, temperatures, and humidity levels in patient rooms
  2. Reducing energy consumption and costs
  3. Mitigating external cooling tower noise pollution

Technical Solution:
The facility’s patient rooms have specific temperature control requirements of 70-100 degrees Fahrenheit, varying humidity levels, and a need to improve indoor air quality for the overall health of the hospital patients and employees. By selecting Condair humidifiers, Texas AirSystems was able to ensure that relative humidity levels would be kept between 40 and 60% to limit the range where bacteria and viruses thrive.

On top of climatizing medical rooms, the Texas AirSystems team helped design the full building to be 26% more energy efficient than the energy code – not only besting the baseline set by ASHRAE 90.1-2015, but also creating a potential $112,000 annual savings in energy costs for the medical facility.

To help achieve this level of energy reduction, the team selected a chilled water system consisting of magnetic-bearing YORK chillers, which consume less energy per ton of cooling load than standard centrifugal chillers and can operate at lower condenser water temperatures. The team also introduced a heat recovery chiller, designed to carry the full heating load for the building throughout the summer months using the heat from condenser water.

Finally, with the new tower only 60 feet from the property line, it was important to prioritize noise-reduction technology. Special low-speed fans were chosen for the BAC cooling towers to control noise level while not compromising the capacity, and Vibro-Acoustics sound attenuators were provided for intake and exhaust around generator air.

Summary:
By prioritizing indoor air quality, energy savings, and noise reduction, the Texas AirSystems team was able to provide the Sarah Cannon Cancer Hospital with the perfect HVAC system custom-fit for the needs of their new tower – and were able to reduce energy costs in the long run.

As the first LEED v4 certified hospital, the Shannon Cannon Cancer Hospital has set the precedent for energy reduction in healthcare.

Equipment

ABB

Variable Frequency Drives

AERCO

Boilers/Domestic Water Heaters

AERCO Condensing Boilers

BAC

Cooling Towers/Fluid Coolers/Evaporative Coolers

Condair

Dehumidifiers and Humidifiers

COOK

Fans

DataAire

Computer Room Conditioning

CRAC Units

Enviro-Tec

Coils

Fan Coil Units

Pottorff

Dampers & Louvers

Price

Grilles, Registers, Diffusers (GRDs)

Vibro-Acoustics

Noise Control and Vibration Isolation

Vibro-Acoustics Attenuators

York

Air Handling Units

Chillers

York Chillers

York Heat Pump Chillers

Partners

Owner

Sarah Cannon

Sarah Cannon, the Cancer Institute of HCA Healthcare, offers integrated cancer treatments with convenient access to cutting-edge therapies for those facing cancer in communities across the United States and United Kingdom. Through its services, Sarah Cannon is providing state-of-the-art cancer care close to home for hundreds of thousands of patients, a number unmatched by any single cancer center.

General Contractor

J.E. Dunn Construction Group

J. E. Dunn Construction Group is a privately owned construction company in the United States. In 2011, the company was ranked 25th in Engineering News-Record's top 400 contractors; Forbes Magazine reported it was the 186th largest private company in the nation in 2010.

Architect

Perkins&Will

Pekins&Will is a architectural firm based out of Dallas, TX. They are creative thinkers with a passion for design and compassion for our communities.

Mechanical Engineer

WSP

WSP develops creative, comprehensive and sustainable engineering solutions for a future in which society can thrive. Equipped with an intimate understanding of local intricacies, world-class talent and proactive leadership, WSP plans, designs, manages and engineers long-lasting and impactful solutions to uniquely complex problems.

Mechanical Contractor

Brandt

With offices in all of the major Texas cities, Brandt has established itself as the largest MEP services contractor in the state. With in-house capabilities that start with build/design, construction and commissioning and end up in service, Brandt works every day to provide the solutions and service to meet their customers' ever-changing needs.

Manufacturer Partners

ABB / AERCO / Armstrong / BAC / Condair / COOK / DataAire / Enervex / Enviro-Tec / Pottorff / Price / Vibro-Acoustics / York