Published in Medical Construction & Design, January/February 2013

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HVAC trends point toward an increasing number of consulting engineers who specify air curtains for healthcare applications. Beyond the common shipping door or foodservice back door applications that prevent flying insect infiltration, air curtains have expanded to the front door, the emergency room door and even foodservice walk-in cooler doors to reduce energy costs.

The trend toward front doors is very apparent to Don Peterson, P.E., a principal at Chicago consulting engineering firm Robert G. Burkhardt & Associates, which specializes in HVAC design for healthcare facilities.

Burkhardt, which has specified HVAC for dozens of projects including Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Ill., Edward Hospital in Naperville, Ill., and Saint Joseph Hospital in Elgin, Ill., specifies air curtains on almost every new healthcare project, according to Peterson. Entry vestibules and automatic emergency room doors are the main targets in 90 percent of the projects because of high foot traffic, energy losses and idling vehicle emission infiltration.

Learn how air curtains help healthcare facilities lower construction and operating costs. Click Here for full article.