Northwest Community Hospital was presented a $78,370 rebate check by Nicor Gas on Wednesday for the hospital’s achievement in Nicor’s Energy Efficiency Program. Bob Klasek, vice president of Facilities Management at NCH, accepted the check from Nicor Gas President Ralph Cleveland.
Last year NCH worked with Edwards Engineering to upgrade the burners on two of its boilers to dramatically reduce the hospital’s natural gas consumption. NCH is now using 83,520 fewer therms each year, which translates into an energy savings of nearly 10 percent.
“The existing burners were in good condition and still had 15 years of useful life, but we determined we could be much more efficient and help our energy budget by switching to new generation burners,” said Tom Johnson, director of Plant Operations.
More than half of an average hospital’s energy use goes to space and water heating, which are typically natural gas-powered processes. The NCH campus in Arlington Heights has a Central Energy Plant with three boilers and two steam generators that are capable of producing 4 megawatts of electrical power for the hospital.
“Energy efficiency projects are competing for funding with things like MRI machines and CT scanners, but in the long run the energy savings allow us to expedite purchases of medical equipment that benefits our patients,” Johnson said.
Northwest Community Hospital is a 496-bed medical center that serves approximately 30,000 inpatients and 350,000 outpatients each year. For more information about NCH projects that help the community, visit the hospital’s website at nch.org.