Care and comfort

Medical and allied health services provider Primary Health Care Limited operates a network of medical and pathology centres across Australia, including the Campsie Medical and Dental Centre (CMDC) in south-western Sydney.

As part of a commitment to providing optimum patient care, CMDC needed to identify an HVAC solution that suited the physical layout of the building and delivered the appropriate levels of comfort across a range of rooms, including consultation suites, small offices and open-plan waiting areas. The existing system did not support the needs of the centre or its staff and patients, so Primary Health Care embarked on a vigorous evaluation process to determine a more suitable HVAC solution.

Traditional ducted systems in applications such as this often deliver extreme variations across separate areas, wherein some are too warm and others too cold. Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems can provide individual temperature control for each room but require refrigerant leak detection systems for small rooms in order to meet with AS1677 requirements. This would entail the installation of refrigerant detectors and alarms that require yearly calibration to comply with Australian law, representing additional ongoing expense.

Mitsubishi Electric was selected to provide a smarter space-saving solution that could be uniquely tailored to suit the specific needs of the practice and its varying room sizes.

Large open-plan areas incorporate a traditional VRF system, while individual consultation suites and smaller rooms feature Mitsubishi Electric’s Hybrid VRF. CMDC is the first commercial installation of the hybrid solution, which allows heat exchange between refrigerant and water and negates the need for additional detection and alarm systems in smaller rooms. Integration between the standard and hybrid systems is seamless and both are operated via a Mitsubishi Electric AE-200E centralised controller.

Primary Health Care was pleased with the outcome and staff have noted a substantial difference in temperature stability across all areas of the practice, prompting the company to plan a rollout to more centres in their network.