HELIOS Albert Schweitzer Clinic Northeim, Germany

The new HELIOS Albert-Schweitzer-Klinik Northeim clinic combines medical excellence with very high standards of service and amenities for patients. In 2009, ZWP Ingenieur-AG was contracted to prepare a special energy concept for the new facility and to plan its technical building services and monitor their proper construction and installation. The new facility has more than 300 planned beds and a 1,200 m², state-of-the-art surgical wing with six operating theaters and a 24-bed intensive-care unit.

Heating is provided by a combined heat and power (CHP) plant, with an output of 210 kW_therm/140 kW_el for the base load supply, and by two 670 kW gas boilers. The CHP plant is able to meet about 1/3 of the facility's annual heating energy requirements, and all of the electricity it generates is used on site. Ventilation for the surgical and functional areas, and for patients' rooms, is provided by a total of seven central ventilation systems with a total volumetric flow rate of 110,000 m³/h. Cooling and thermal recovery are provided via a central, tripartite combined-circulation system with adiabatic exhaust-air cooling. The facility's building services are controlled from five information centers that, via a BACnet-standard network, are linked with some 4,000 physical sensing points. A transformer station, with two 630 kVA transformers, has also been installed. Backup-power needs are met by an emergency power supply unit with an output of 510 kVA. Data and communications services are provided via a structured network serving some 1,400 ports. All in all, a total of some 300 km of cables and wiring were installed for the new facility's high-voltage systems, telephone and IT networks and building-automation systems.

Images: © Solveig Böhl (ZWP Ingenieur-AG)