St. Vincent Evansville

Due to aging infrastructure and a desire to reduce energy consumption, St. Vincent hired Hafer to complete renovations to the Central Plant cooling system. It was crucial to upgrade the equipment in order to provide the hospital with a reliable source of cooling that will serve their patients for the next two decades. One of the ways energy consumption was reduced was by providing a tower free cooling heat exchanger and control sequences that utilize outside air temperatures during the winter to provide chilled water to the hospital for critical cooling processes.

Not only is efficiency important to St. Vincent, but so is the ongoing costs of operating a Central Plant. Maintenance of building systems can become expensive over time if not designed properly. This is why Hafer designed the systems to allow adequate clearances and ease of access to allow the systems to be maintained, continue to operate efficiently and keep the systems up and running while the maintenance is occurring.

The upgrades included:
• Replacement of 750-ton chiller with 1,500-ton variable speed chiller
• Converting the chilled water system into a 6,000-ton variable primary flow pumping system
• Replacing a 4,500-ton system for a 6,000-ton condenser water system including cooling tower, pumps and controls