As part of the drive to lower the carbon footprint of the NHS in Scotland, the Crosshouse Hospital canteen has been equipped with The Ecocent® hot water production unit that is manufactured by Earth Save Products. Four Ecocent units have been installed to serve the Hospital canteen, which is a very high user of hot water that has, until now, been costly to produce.

The canteen servery was an uncomfortable place to work as it was so hot and humid. Thanks to Ecocent technology, the excessive heat can be harvested and the hot water for the pot washers and kitchen sinks produced cheaply. Also, the working environment is a lot more pleasant because the excess heat is being harvested and used by the Ecocent units and cool air is being supplied by the units to the working areas.

The Ecocent unit is an integrated air source heat pump and hot water cylinder that produces hot water using waste heat from the canteen kitchens (or any kitchen, bathroom or area of waste heat). Before ESP installed the Ecocents, the hot air from the kitchen had to be extracted via fans which were relatively expensive to run. Now, the Ecocents draw in air (containing heat) to the units where the heat is then stripped out of that air and transferred in to the integrated hot water cylinder of the unit.

So, Crosshouse hospital is not only saving money but it is also reducing the carbon foot print and making the working environment more pleasant. A spokesperson for the hospital said “these are early days but we’re delighted with the system and so are the canteen employees. The Ecocents are saving more money than we were expecting and we are still discovering more benefits. We are also pleased to be leading the way and are looking for even more ways to use renewable technologies. You wouldn’t believe the amount of questions we are asked about the Ecocents”.