Putting the Health in Healthcare with Radiant

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Designed by Lord Norman Foster of Britain along with architects from DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky, the $515 million Health Education Campus for the Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, provides a state-of-the-art learning space to usher in a new era of teaching for medical, nursing, dental, physician assistant and social work students.

The campus features a 485,000-square-foot Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion and a 132,000-square-foot School of Dental Medicine to treat patients under the supervision of dental faculty. The pavilion features a 27,000-square-foot central atrium that draws maximum light from a specially engineered roof. It also includes a $5 million conference center with a 7,000-square-foot auditorium and a 4,800-square-foot lecture hall.

With all the expansive spaces and high ceilings, the buildings required a heating and cooling system that would provide exceptional comfort along with energy efficiency. To ensure occupants’ comfort and the buildings’ improved indoor environmental quality (IEQ), the design included a radiant heating and cooling system from Uponor, featuring Wirsbo hePEX™ pipe in a custom-designed, prefabricated network of Radiant Rollout™ Mats.

Cleveland Health Education Clinic, Ohio | Radiant floor heating install with Radiant Rollout Mats in 2018

Efficient installation solution saves time, reduces materials, and protects workers

Designed for large-scale radiant heating and cooling commercial projects, Radiant Rollout Mats provide faster, easier, more consistent radiant heating and cooling installations that can save up to 85% in installation time and add greater job-site safety for workers.

The mats arrive on the job site in large rolls that installers simply unroll and fasten to the concrete surface. The solution reduces wire ties and staples by up to 40%, which also limits bending, kneeling, and body strain for workers.

Already pre-pressurized at the factory, the mats have the option to include a reverse-return header, which can reduce required manifold ports by more than 60%. There is also the option to connect directly to traditional radiant manifolds to meet project specifications. The mats feature Wirsbo hePEX™ oxygen-barrier PEX pipe connected to ProPEX® engineered polymer (EP) fittings, which are safe for burial in the slab.

Cleveland Health Education Clinic, Ohio | Radiant floor heating install with Radiant Rollout Mats in 2018

Watch this time-lapse video to see how quickly installers were able to expedite the Wirsbo hePEX piping installation in the Health Education Campus project using the Radiant Rollout Mats, installing 55,860 lineal feet of pipe in just eight days.

With the faster installation, there was less impact to the concrete pour schedule, helping to keep the project on track, and workers were able to install easier with less strain on their bodies.

Healthier, more energy-efficient comfort with radiant

With a newfound focus on indoor environmental quality for commercial — and especially healthcare — buildings, radiant is quickly becoming the heating and cooling system of choice for large commercial structures.

For the end user, the radiant heating and cooling system provides greater comfort using less energy. That’s because the heat-transfer capacity of water in a hydronic radiant system is 3,500 times greater than air. Thus, a radiant system that uses a circulator to move water (in lieu of a fan to move air) can achieve the same heat transfer using significantly less energy. This means occupants are more comfortable and building owners benefit from lower energy costs.

Cleveland Health Education Clinic; Ohio; Radiant floor heating install; Radiant Rollout Mats; RROM; 2018 install

Additionally, because hydronic radiant heating systems use pumps to move water instead of fans or blowers to push air, the system does not circulate viruses, allergens, or odors throughout the indoor space. This provides better indoor air quality, which is especially important in healthcare facilities.

Lastly, because radiant keeps the comfort near the floor where people are located, it provides an even, consistent temperature without hot or cold spots in a space. And, because radiant systems are designed in zones, it offers maximum occupant comfort control for each individual space — another important benefit for occupants in healthcare buildings.

To learn more about PEX piping solutions for healthcare applications, including domestic water, hydronic distribution, and radiant heating and cooling, visit uponor-usa.com/healthcare. To learn more about the benefits of radiant systems in commercial applications, visit the Uponor Commercial Radiant Solutions page.

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