'Church building made installation work special'

Commissioned by Built by De Wildt, BLR-Bimon provided the climate installations for the health center in the former San Salvator church in 's-Hertogenbosch. The expert in climate control engineered and installed the heating, cooling and ventilation in both the general areas and the practice rooms. 

"We regularly realize climate installations in health centers," says BLR-Bimon director Jan Paul Birkhoff. "What is special about this health center is that it was realized in a church. One of the concerns was the size. How do you heat such a large building? We therefore applied a slightly different system here than usual."

Heating, cooling, ventilation

"Instead of air heating and cooling, we installed underfloor heating," Birkhoff continued. "This was placed in the central hall, an open space up to the ridge. Furthermore, we installed a ventilation system with WTW unit, where fresh air is continuously supplied." The rooms in the health center can be heated and cooled separately. Energy is exchanged via a heat pump system. For example, the physical therapist's exercise room is continuously cooled. The heat released is used to heat other rooms. 

Puzzle

Not only the dimensions, but also the shape of the church was a concern. Birkhoff: "We placed the WTW unit of the ventilation system out of sight in the basement of the church. We laid our rectangular zinc ducts through the existing concrete ducts. That was quite a puzzle. Installing the ducts above the health center's box-in-box construction was also a bit of a puzzle. Among other things, we had to ensure that the appearance of the large arches was not disturbed." To ensure proper coordination with the architectural part, BLR-Bimon worked out the design of the climate systems in 3D Revit.

Pride and joy

In April 2021, BLR-Bimon began installation. "The work went well from start to finish," Birkhoff looks back. "This is partly because we performed this work in a construction team with established parties. From us there were two experienced mechanics on the job, who had already supplied many health centers with climate control systems. This was a great job for them. Like me, they look back on it with great pride and pleasure."