Electric heat pumps to power hospital’s sustainable expansion

The first of 21 large heat pumps has been delivered to the Canberra Hospital’s Critical Services Building site, as part of the facility’s new expansion.

The heat pumps are one of the fundamental features of the new all-electrical building, replacing traditional gas boilers as the building’s source of hot water.

The new Critical Services Building showcased its environmentally sustainable credentials for World Environment Day, with the building targeting a five-star Green Star rating.

ACT State Minister for Health, Rachel Stephen-Smith, said the Canberra Hospital expansion project is leading the way nationally in environmentally sustainable health infrastructure design.

“The Critical Services Building will be Australia’s first allelectric major hospital building and when it opens in 2024 it will mitigate the release of an estimated 1,886t of carbon emissions each year, the equivalent of removing 760 cars from Canberra’s roads.

“We are building on that momentum by targeting a five-star Green Star rating for the new Critical Services Building. This incorporates the latest environmentally sustainable design features such as a high performing façade and new technology that automatically monitors and controls heating, ventilation and cooling,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.

Key features of sustainable design in the Critical Services Building to target an enhanced Green Star rating include:

A high-performing façade glazing of thermally-broken double glazed units, which minimises the cooling required in summer and heating required in winter, and other energyefficient façade elements

Energy efficient and intelligent HVAC systems

• A holistic Building Management and Control system, which monitors and controls all systems in the building

• A high indoor environment quality

• Landscaping and irrigation that uses recycled water and open courtyards and green spaces with plants suitable to the local environment

• Environmentally conscious decision-making, which has been at the forefront of the Critical Services Building throughout its construction process

• During demolition of the previous buildings that stood on site, with 96 per cent of the materials salvaged and repurposed for other projects

Concrete for the new building includes locally sourced low carbon concrete, a 40 per cent reduction in carbon content when compared with standard concrete mixes, and has eliminated more than 2,000t of embodied CO² on the project to date – the equivalent of carbon removed by more than 30,000 tree seedlings grown over ten years.

The use of electric cranes has also helped to eliminate pollution and noise during building construction.