In a hospital, cooling is a clinical system, not a comfort service. The 2026 FGI codes now incorporate ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170-2025 for minimum ventilation, and that shift is a useful reminder for anyone specifying equipment into healthcare projects: the parameters that decide whether a hospital cooling system works are not the parameters used for offices.

Air change rates drive the load, not just equipment heat. A general (Class B) operating room is commonly designed at a minimum of 4 outdoor air changes per hour and 20 total air changes per hour, held at positive pressure to adjoining spaces. That ventilation volume — not the surgical equipment — is a large share of the cooling load, and it must be maintained as filters load and pressure drop rises. A unit sized on room volume alone will drift out of balance.

Humidity is a clinical requirement. The operating-room design window sits at roughly 20–24 °C and 20–60% relative humidity. Cooling below the lower temperature bound can push relative humidity out of range, which is why humidity control has to be designed into the unit rather than retrofitted after commissioning.

Imaging suites cannot share a zone. MRI manufacturers specify the magnet room as an independent temperature zone with its own control, and imaging vendors publish their own temperature, humidity and heat-rejection requirements. Comfort cooling serving the corridor will not satisfy a magnet room, and the failure is expensive.

Duty cycle is the fourth difference. Hospitals do not close. Redundancy, generator-backed operation, wide voltage tolerance and automatic restart after power loss matter more here than nameplate efficiency figures — as does service access that does not require entering a sterile area.

For tender documents, the practical response is to specify duty at design outdoor temperature, the humidity control range, redundancy level, filter class with pressure-drop allowance, and separate zoning for imaging. Hospitals that get cooling right specify it at design stage, not at handover.

HAILOS, a China-based precision cooling manufacturer, supplies room-level precision units from 4.4 to 150 kW with custom voltage and configuration options, and provides English technical documentation and commissioning records for healthcare projects. CE and ISO 9001/14001/45001 certified. Contact: info@hailos-hvac.com | WhatsApp +86 130 1227 2328