by Shane Henson — August 1, 2011— The Veterans Administration’s Fayetteville VA Medical Center (FVAMC) in North Carolina has reduced energy use, cut utility costs and avoided the release of more than 1,920 tons of greenhouse gas annually through working with Nalco, a sustainability services company focused on industrial water, energy and air applications.
The FVAMC environmental team approached Nalco to design a plan to increase the building’s energy efficiency and improve indoor air quality for patients and staff at the 70-year old facility. The main problem was that individual fan coil units were installed 35 years ago in about 400 individual rooms and offices to provide heating and cooling, and posed a health problem because of the dirt and particulates they had accumulated.
As part of the solution, Nalco engineers applied patented COIL-FLO technology to deep-clean and disinfect the coils; installed high-efficiency, antimicrobial filters; and thoroughly cleaned and disinfected the internal surfaces of each unit.
Air temperatures are now more consistent, and the filters reduced particulates in patient care areas by as much as 90 percent, Nalco engineers say, helping eliminate odors and creating a safer, more pleasant environment for both patients and staff members. Also of note: improved efficiency reduced the hospital’s utility costs by $154,000 per year, and the total cost of the project was repaid in energy savings within seven months. Greenhouse gas savings were equal to removing more than 340 cars a year from the road.
The project won a 2011 VA Sustainability Achievement Award, which is given to VA facilities and employees who have demonstrated outstanding environmental stewardship and whose efforts have resulted in significant contributions to the environment. One requirement for the award was that the project could be duplicated at other VA facilities. The Salisbury, NC, VAMC is adopting a fan coil cleaning project of its own.
