The best heating solution for healthcare settings
Healthcare Heating solutions need to be adaptable, offer safety and deter the risk of infection, as well as enable temperature adjustment to prevent overheating.
Radiant Heating and Cooling panels offer an innovative, discreet, efficient and safe heating alternative to wall mounted radiators and underfloor heating. It delivers on all objectives required for heating in a healthcare setting.The benefits of Radiant Heating & Cooling include:
- An even distribution of heating and cooling
- Easy to clean and virtually maintenance free
- Distribution of heat via water inhibits the circulation of dust, mould, bacteria and viruses
- Unobtrusive and frees up wall space
- Can easily be relocated
- No noise
How Radiant Panels meet the strict efficiency and safety requirements for healthcare settings
Safety first
The built environment can play a significant role in the transmission of infection. Mitigating this risk when it comes to heating is therefore critical.
Certain types of heating are unsuitable for healthcare environments. Underfloor heating, for example, is not an appropriate choice for most healthcare areas, which are more likely to become soiled with bodily fluids. While bulky radiators take up valuable wall-space and become obstacles with the potential to cause accidental bumps and scrapes.
Radiant Heating and Cooling panels help to reduce the transmission of infection in a number of ways:
- They are ceiling mounted, so are clear of blood and body substance spills
- As heat is distributed via water, rather than air, circulation of dust, mould, fungi, bacterium or viruses is not an issue
- Versatile provide panels with an anti-microbial coating as standard, which inhibits bacterial growth to prevent the spread of infection, such as E. coli and MRSA
The IPC requirements for those using mental health and learning disability environments must be made in conjunction with health and safety teams, risk management teams and clinicians when advising on the built environment. All fixtures and fittings in mental health environments, for example, must be anti-ligature. Radiant ceiling panels are a safe alternative.
Adaptability
As has been highlighted with the recent Covid-19 pandemic, the demands on our healthcare system are huge. Spaces within healthcare settings are no longer bound by a long-term single use. Today’s heating solutions must offer a greater level of adaptability.
Radiant panels can be easily moved within ceiling grids to accommodate changes in the use of spaces. For example, panels can be aligned with new bed layouts in wards. Radiant Heating & Cooling offers flexibility without huge cost – many other heating systems (such as underfloor heating, for example) would be extremely costly and disruptive to move.
Efficiency and temperature control
With healthcare budgets continually squeezed, value for money in all aspects of the health and care context is essential. That includes all aspects of heating from install costs to long-term energy efficiency gains. Certain areas in healthcare buildings, such as outpatient waiting areas, will only be in use at particular times of the day. Radiant Heating & Cooling panels address heating waste as they only direct heat to occupants, conserving energy when a space isn’t being used.
Cleaning and maintenance
Radiant Heating & Cooling offers considerable advantages over other heating solutions. There are no moving parts which means panels have limited maintenance requirements. They have a long life cycle and are easy to clean using a cloth and mild detergent.
Heating has a significant role to play in making our hospitals and health facilities as comfortable, efficient and therapeutically robust as possible. Radiant heating and cooling offers significant energy-saving benefits and creates a safer, cleaner environment for all.
Register for Versatile’s RIAI, RIBA & CIBSE accredited CPD Webinar “,Designing Radiant Heating and Cooling Systems“
For information on the complete Radiant Heating & Cooling Ceiling Panels, contact our specialists. Tel: +353 (0)46 902 9444 or email sales@versatile.ie
