UTAH COUNTY -- The Utah Valley Regional Medical Center is using steam power to run parts of their hospital, which helps protect the environment.
The hospital’s new boiler plant is 8,700 square feet in size, and boiler plant operator Dee Nuttall said the steam produced runs many of the hospital’s systems.
"The steam is used for everything from hot water to make heat and comfort heat, to domestic hot water, sterilization, humidification, and then it's also used in dietary to wash dishes and to cook food,” he said.
With the new system, hot water doesn’t just go down the drain. Instead, it’s run through economizer coils. Then the system uses exhaust gas from the boiler to heat that water up even further. Nuttall said the process conserves energy.
“We gain about 50 degrees temperature off this economizer right here, which is a considerable difference,” he said.
Nuttall said the system also saves money.
“That should save us about 7 percent is what they tell us,” he said. “We spent, last year, $408,000 on natural gas for this facility."
