Geothermal lake to heat, cool new Sherman Hospital

Geothermal lake to heat, cool new Sherman Hospital

Elgin-based Sherman Health has commissioned a $310 million, 645,000-square-foot replacement hospital featuring a geothermal lake, which will allow the hospital to be heated and cooled by the Earth’s natural ability to absorb solar energy.

Scheduled to open in late 2009, the hospital will be mainly heated and cooled by geothermal energy from a 15-acre artificial lake next to the facility. This project is expected to decrease Sherman’s gas and electric costs by nearly $1 million annually.

“The geothermal lake was a wise choice, both economically and ecologically,” said Brian Helm, president of Mechanical, Inc., a Freeport mechanical contractor that is installing the hospital’s intricate heating and cooling system. That system includes 275,000 feet of two-inch piping in the geothermal heat exchanger, a component which uses the lake’s natural geothermal properties to heat and cool the hospital.

Mechanical is also installing the medical gas piping and the plumbing in the facility and is working with Walsh Construction Co., the construction manager for the replacement hospital.

“When we originally did the return on investment for this initiative, it came back showing a savings of at least $1 million per year,” said Dawn Stoner, project specialist for Sherman Hospital. “Over the last two years, since design, prices have only escalated.

“We see this as a great savings for the hospital, but it also allows us to use a renewable energy source. This is a great decision for any facility, big or small. We are all responsible for making our environment better.”

“Sherman Hospital will be the first hospital in Illinois to build a geothermal lake,” said Mechanical’s Selena Worster, the project manager for the geothermal lake. “This lake will also be the largest of its kind in the nation.”

According to Worster, solar energy is absorbed by the surface layer of the 17-foot-deep geothermal lake, resulting in a natural thermocline and a relatively consistent temperature at the bottom of the lake.

The lake will have a natural clay liner and be filled with rainwater. Water and methanol-bearing coils of piping, or heat exchanger rafts, are stationed at the lake’s floor. The steady temperature at the bottom of the lake will be the heating and cooling source for the solution passing through the coils. This solution, in turn, is circulated by a lake loop heat-pump system.

When the circulating solution reaches the water source heat pumps, the energy is converted to warm or cool air to regulate the temperature of the majority of the hospital’s rooms. The emergency room and surgical suites will employ a traditional heating and cooling system, since they require cooler temperatures.

Posted on Monday, June 02, 2008 (Archive on Monday, June 09, 2008)
Posted by jstoltz Contributed by jstoltz

Return