Royal Marsden

Hospital saves a cool £53k a year after air conditioning upgrade

Royal Marsden Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – a leading player in the fight against cancer – has cut its summer cooling costs by almost £53,000 a year after upgrading 122 air conditioning systems.

In a move sparked both by the ban on R22 refrigerant and the desire to improve efficiency and cost savings, it turned to Daikin UK for a solution across its two sites – Sutton and Chelsea.

The new systems serve a wide range of rooms including laboratories and treatment rooms in both locations.

Hospital saves a cool £53k a year after air conditioning upgrade

Rated as the most commercially savvy NHS hospital trust, Royal Marsden also recognised that the compulsory change to systems using a more environmently friendly refrigerant also presented opportunities for savings on running costs and capital budgets – potentially boosting funds for medical and treatment services.

With R22 now banned for use in new systems or for recharging systems, if major components fail in any of the old systems, they can no longer be repaired.

The trust avoided this by signing a timely purchase agreement with Daikin. The trust chose the brand for its wide product range with high energy efficiency and excellent quality.

The Daikin package included competitive pricing coupled with extended warranties, a dedicated account manager, updates on technology as well as legislation and products, and efficient after sales service.

"The monetary saving translates to annual reductions of 440,367kWh in electricity or 240 tonnes of carbon dioxide."

Ehsan Sattar, Royal Marsden energy manager

The new Daikin R410A systems – including VRV, Splits and chillers – were installed in 2014-15 by Daikin D1+ partner EMS maintenance.

A variety of Daikin fan coil units are installed indoors. The Daikin package included competitive pricing coupled with extended warranties, a dedicated account manager, updates on technology as well as legislation and products, and efficient after sales service.

With the change to new systems, there was an immediate drop in the number, cost and inconvenience of breakdowns. And as the new systems are technologically more advanced than their predecessors, they are expected to more reliable throughout their service lives.