Consulting Engineering
Bon Secours Mercy Health (BSMH) needed to build a new cancer center in the Paducah, Kentucky market to meet the desperate need in this regional hub community for elite cancer care. Recognizing the critical nature of building systems to patient well-being and also leaning into their strong commitment to sustainability, they looked for a partner who would guide them to the best building system – one that would include full lifecycle cost analysis to help not only maximize sustainability but also long-term cost. CMTA as a national leader in high performance building design has been collecting data on not only energy use but also energy cost of buildings for similar facilities from across the nation. Leaning into this expertise and wealth of information, CMTA was able to present a lifecycle cost analysis to the client that was based on hard data to allow BSMH to make the right system selection for their needs. In this case, CMTA also leveraged their position as a Nation-wide design firm to bring the best and most current information to the table for this client as it pertains to new Federal rebate programs available to non-profit and non-taxable entities through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. By giving them the latest and greatest information on this new emerging program, BSMH was able to make lifecycle cost decisions which offset a projected $1.5M of the building’s total HVAC system cost – minimizing the cost of their replacement system and maximizing their investment in sustainability.
The building HVAC system selected after lifecycle cost analysis and analysis of Federal Rebate programs was a Ground Source (geothermal) heat pump system with a dedicated outside air system linked to the ground source heat exchanger for fresh air ventilation to each space. Horizontal heat pumps distribute heating and cooling to each space as required with a centralized pumping system moving heat between the ground heat exchanger and heat pumps as required to meet the needs of the season. The facility includes a compounding pharmacy with a dedicated HVAC system also served by the building ground-source heat exchanger system.
