Designing and Operating High-Performing Healthcare HVAC Systems

The course details the relationship of infection control and HVAC design, including application of ASHRAE's HVAC Design Manual for Hospitals and Clinics, Second Edition, and ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170-2017 Ventilation of Health Care Facilities. The course details the key elements of high-performing health care HVAC systems, including infection control, comfort, reliability, safety, maintenance, energy, and flexibility. In the instructor's experience, engineers are regularly asked to troubleshoot systems they have designed, thus operation and maintenance issues are covered The methods by which the HVAC system can mitigate or exacerbate airborne infections is covered, as this is the purpose of ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170. Numerous energy conservation strategies are discussed in the context of achieving the goals of a high-performing hospital. Included is valuable information on sequences, psychrometrics, and lessons learned on setback of temperature and airflow, as well as how these factors relate to temperature, relative humidity, air exchange, filtration, and pressurization requirements. Design of operating suites, isolation rooms, labs, pharmacies, sterile processing, and imaging suites is covered briefly in the final hour.