HVAC Load
Imaging rooms generate substantial heat that must be removed by dedicated air-conditioning. Hospital house HVAC is rarely sufficient; modern installs require dedicated cooling commissioned alongside the equipment, not retrofitted.
Typical heat-rejection loads
- CT scanner room — ~50 kW (gantry + power cabinet + console).
- MRI — ~20–40 kW (gradient amplifier + cold-head compressor + chiller + ancillaries). Cold-head compressor heat load is often the dominant component and is sometimes located in a remote equipment room.
- Linac vault — significant; klystron / modulator / control console + treatment-room cooling. Typically dedicated AC.
- Cath lab / interventional X-ray — high (40–60 kW combined for high-end biplane rooms with FlexVision and full equipment cabinet).
- PET / CT — combined CT-side + PET-electronics + ancillary cooling.
- Fluoroscopy / DR — moderate (10–20 kW).
Why it matters to uptime
Summer heat in underspec'd rooms is the #1 cause of "inexplicable" image-quality and intermittent fault problems. Scanner thermal-limit interlocks fire when room ambient drifts above OEM spec — symptoms appear seasonally and are hard to diagnose months after install. Commission AC with the equipment; don't bolt it on after install.
Specifications
- Room ambient — typically 18–24°C (~65–75°F) per OEM spec.
- Humidity — 30–60% RH; outside range, condensation and electrostatic issues.
- Temperature stability — ±2°C is a common spec; tighter for some platforms.
- Equipment-room (chiller / compressor) cooling is separate from imaging-room cooling and often higher-load.
Refurb / relocation gotchas
- Older platforms in a previously-adequate room may exceed AC spec when retrofit with newer / higher-power equipment.
- Equipment-room layout changes (chiller relocation, cold-head compressor relocation) shift the cooling-load distribution.
- Climate-zone — hot, humid climates push HVAC sizing more aggressively; spec margins matter.