“Nature hospital” uses nature as its heat source |
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“Nature hospital” uses nature as its heat source |
The ”Vidar clinic” on the old E4, a few dozen kilometers south of Södertälje, is the only anthroposophic hospital in the Nordic region for emergency medicine and rehabilitation aimed at cancer care, burnouts and various chronic illnesses. This takes the form of qualified somatic care and rehab, where conventional forms of treatments are combined with anthroposophic natural remedies.
It is not only the treatments that differ from current trends, but the architecture of the buildings at ”Vidarkliniken” and some of the training units inside also breaks from the norm. Due to its special architecture, the group of buildings on the peak surrounded by open Södermanland countryside has aroused great interest since being built during the early 1980s and has received a number of awards. |
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Underground lake as heat source |
Four 45 kW Thermia heat pumps have been responsible for heating and producing hot water for the last year year. Two old oil-fired boilers act as additional heaters, which were responsible for heating for several years, after earlier heat pumps of another brand has worn out.
As treatments at the hospital partly consist of hot baths combined with different natural remedy ingredients, a good supply of hot water is needed. The hot water capacity is 5000 litres which is pre-heated by the heat pumps and post-heated to above 58 degrees in one 1000 litre water heater using an immersion heater. |
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Investment paid for in four years! |
The heat source is a water-filled hollow 10–15 meters down in the rock. The water is pumped up to a heat exchanger, which is in the heating installation and which transfers the ”heat” to the coolant system, which enters the heat pumps. The previous oil consumption of up to 500 litres per day, has been reduced considerably. Gunnar Söberg at Thermia’s dealer, Söberg & Söderström in Gnesta, states that only two cubic meters of oil are being consumed over the entire winter. ”They make a saving of 250,000 SEK per year and this means that the investment will be paid for within four years!”
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