COMPANY: Aggreko plc, Houston

INSTALLATION: Temporary ventilation system for ICU

COMPLETION: Completed

CUSTOMER: C162-bed hospital in Northern California

OBJECTIVE: Replace a blower in the air handler without interrupting the air supply.

DESCRIPTION: The hospital needed to replace a blower in an air handler that served its intensive care unit without interrupting air supply. Access to the existing ductwork was located on the roof of the seven-story hospital and positioning temporary equipment would have required a crane and may have also presented load-bearing problems. Equipment positioned on the ground would have needed the capacity to push air through 200 feet of ductwork up the side of the hospital to the roof and overcome the additional 5 inches of static pressure created by the distance and the turns in the ductwork. Aggreko provided a temporary 100-ton chiller and a 120-ton air handler as well as four ducts that ran 230 feet. The 18,000 cfm air handler was able to provide enough air pressure to overcome the static pressure. To make sure the air provided was clean, the company worked with the mechanical contractor to build a MERV filter box that was positioned between the temporary duct and the permanent hospital ductwork.

Publication date: 11/02/2009