Doctors and medical staff across Europe are worried about energy bills and how they could impact patients.
Some areas of the UK National Health Service could see their winter energy bills double or triple compared with last year’s, according to an investigation by the British Medical Journal. That amounts to an additional £2 million (€2.32 million) per month for those worst affected.
Germany’s Health Minister Karl Lauterbach recently tweeted: “Inflation and high energy costs are threatening the very existence of hospitals. We are working on a solution.”
Heat pumps can be part of a solution to high energy bills in hospitals. They can provide direct heating and cooling and recover heat for the hospital and for private homes.
Sygehus Sønderjylland hospital in Sønderborg, Denmark is an example.
There, a Danfoss heat pump provides direct cooling for the technical installations, scanners, ambulatory clinics, and wards. It then recovers the heat from this cooling process for the hospital process and for comfort heat. Any surplus heat gets transferred to the district energy grid and piped into private homes.
Jesper Møller Iversen – Head of Finance and Planning, Sygehus Sønderjylland, commented:
“With great pleasure we wave goodbye to fossil fuels at the hospital in Sønderborg and welcome the green transition. As a large organisation, we are pleased to be able to make our contribution to this important transition. We expect to gain a lot of good experiences, which can also serve other hospitals in the region, and throughout the country.”
In practical terms, the project is run by a steering committee with representatives from the local council, the utility, the engineering company, and representatives from the hospitals in the region, and Danfoss itself.
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