Recent Green Initiative

April 30, 2012

Hanover and District Hospital continues to lead the health care sector by reducing its carbon footprint on the environment

Earth Day was celebrated worldwide on April 22, 2012.  It has been determined that more than 6 million Canadians joined 1 billion people in over 170 countries in staging events and projects to address local environmental issues. Nearly every school child in Canada takes part in some form of Earth Day activity. 

In recognition of Earth Day, the Hanover and District Hospital implemented their Instantaneous Water Heat Exchange Unit.   This unit marks an Infrastructure renewal and improvement to the efficiency of the heating system. The unit replaces a large water tank that stored water from the boiler supply. The new unit reduces water consumption, reduces waste heat, fuel consumption and reduces the equipment foot print by over 90% and still out performs the old technology in heat produced by three times (3X) the efficiency. From April 16^th until April 22^nd (Earth Day) this project saved 7,200,000 BTU’s of energy from production of hot water by gas heating. The gas heater that normally provides the heated water has basically sat idle for these six days by absorbing heat from the boiler piping system and using it to reheat the water required for use. In comparison, 7.2 million BTU’s is equivalent to approximately 2,110 Kilowatt Hours of electricity production for the same one week period. In simple terms the project has allowed us to save the equivalent energy it would take to heat an average sized home for that same one week period.  

 Efficiency in heat production is not the only added benefit of the new system.  In addition, the system eleminates standing water which causes Legionella and other known water borne pathogens from incubating in the water system. A large amount of Asbestos was also removed from the old mechanical equipment and piping to improve on safety of our environment. This project is one of the hospital’sr Green Initiatives that was engineered and completed entirely in-house with the exception of professional asbestos abatement.

Environmental challenges are plentiful as our daily actions pollute and degrade the fragile environment that humans and wildlife depend on to survive. Earth Day provides the opportunity for positive actions and results. The Hanover and District Hospital Engineering Team have once again risen to the challenge of this celebrated worldwide event through these contributions.

For More Information Contact: Katrina Wilson, President and CEO Phone: (519)364-2341 Ext. 206