Albany Hospital Gets a Vital Upgrade With a New Boiler Room

In every hospital lies a crucial space that often goes unnoticed by patients, visitors and employees but plays a vital role in ensuring the smooth functioning of the facility. The boiler room, also known as the mechanical room, is undergoing a transformative change at Samaritan Albany General Hospital with the installation of new state-of-the-art boilers.

The boiler room is a dedicated space to house mechanical and electrical equipment, including boilers, heat exchangers, water tanks, water pumps and other ancillary equipment.

“It’s sort of the ‘heart’ of the facility,” said Eric Carpenter, manager of plant services and engineering at SAGH.

The decision to replace the aging boilers was motivated by several pressing factors. The existing boilers had served the hospital for decades, but they were long past their lifespan and had become increasingly unreliable due to frequent breakdowns.

This upgrade aims to enhance patient safety and provide uninterrupted services. The state-of-the-art boilers are a leap forward in health care technology, energy efficiency and fuel efficiency. Additionally, the boilers are dual fuel meaning they can run on either natural gas or diesel which provides additional backup support during emergencies.

“These new boilers are 25% larger and not only meet the current steam load demands with full redundancy – if one boiler is down for maintenance, the other can still support the entire hospital – but will also allow for future steam expansion when needed,” said Carpenter.

The milestones achieved so far for the new state-of-the-art boiler room have been significant including the building being completed and the boilers installed. The next major task is tying all the new equipment in with the piping.

As the hospital approaches the completion of this project, scheduled to be completed by this October, the entire team is enthusiastic about the positive impact it will have on daily operations.

“Our whole team is very excited to have a modern boiler system that is efficient and can provide hot water, heating and steam that a busy hospital needs 24/7,” said Arlen Emmert, director of engineering services at SAGH.