American Chillers supplied four chillers and four city water bypass (switchover) panels to the new Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Dublin, California. Phase I of the hospital, a 220,000 square foot facility includes 180,000 square feet of advanced medical, urgent care and clinics plus a 40,000 square foot cancer treatment facility.

Challenging Cooling Requirements

The heat load from the linear accelerators varies greatly from a very small load on standby to near full capacity during a beam on test treatments. Actual treatment loads vary between max and standby depending on the treatment. Adding to the temperature swing challenge, the linear accelerators also require a very low flow rate and high temperature difference. The fluid temperature also needs to be maintained in a warmer temperature range to keep the pipes from sweating which may cause condensation in the machine.

Chillers Engineered with Remote Control and Access

The American Chillers were built specifically to work with the demand and load swings of the linear accelerators. Included were PLC controls with building management system interface, allowing the chillers to not only be controlled from a remote location, but also included the monitoring of fluid temperatures and pressures, refrigeration temperatures and pressures, flow rate and a number of faults including power phase, voltage and many others.

On-site Start-up

American Chillers sent a factory technician to Dublin to commission the chillers and oversee the operation of each cooling system and conducted a training for on-site personnel.

City Water Back-up for Mission Critical Cooling

American Chillers manufacturers a panel with solenoid valves and sensors that automatically switch to city water for temporary cooling in the event of a chiller or power issue. The panel switches on high temperature or low flow. Communication to the chiller locks out the pump circuit (turns off the pump(s) during switchover.

Redundant Chillers Available

American Chillers also offers a redundant chiller option for locations where the domestic water is too warm to provide adequate cooling and/or locations where water is not allowed to be temporarily dumped down the drain. This warm water can also be recovered and used for hot water or building heat.

High Ambient Conditions

The chillers were installed on the roof of the hospital in an area where ambient air temperatures often exceed 100F degrees during the summer. American Chillers included over-sized condensers to compensate for the added heat and provide cooling 24-7-365.

Three Decades providing Chillers for Varian Linear Accelerators

Varian is the leading manufacturer of linear accelerators which use radiation to treat cancer. The linear accelerators require fluid cooling. We have been providing cooling for Varian equipment for three decades.

For more information about how American Chillers can work with your cancer treatment facility, please contact our sales team.