Morgue design inquiry
Morgue design inquiry
(OP)
I've got a morgue design added to the scope of work.
The hospital is a small coal town in PA and the morgue is used from time-to-time by the county coroner.
The current system has 2 fans, 1 exh, 1 supply and a residential window shaker AC unit. Supply fan is shut off. The window shaker is nowhere near the table.
The room is on the 1st floor at grade.
The new system is CV reheat with 30%/90% filters with a main 26,000 cfm AHU serving radiology, nuclear med, etc. I currently have 1150 cfm exh/850 cfm supply with the difference made up between 2 doors of 1 is exterior. I have 20 air changes/hr; 52 deg supply air.
Diffuser is one 90 deg, 24x48 1-way blow hemispherical at the coroner's back, 850 cfm.
I have pressure monitoring and alarm annunciation at the head end and alarm light at the room entrance. The cv reheat box closes if positive pressure occurs.
There is a body holding refrigerator, free-stamding, max 4 body count. They use it from time to time for amputee storage.
Does the refrigerator need exh? (and air changes/quantity)?
The exh fan is at grade currently. The ER entrance is about 50' away. To put the fan up high would look like heck and there is an intake on the sidewall of the hip roof. (There is a AHU in the attic space). Access on the roof for the fan is a major concern.
There are no intake louvers within 25' of the current exh fan location (sidewall at grade).
Shall I look at filters to effectively filter the odors?
I or no-one here has done morgue design.
The hospital is a small coal town in PA and the morgue is used from time-to-time by the county coroner.
The current system has 2 fans, 1 exh, 1 supply and a residential window shaker AC unit. Supply fan is shut off. The window shaker is nowhere near the table.
The room is on the 1st floor at grade.
The new system is CV reheat with 30%/90% filters with a main 26,000 cfm AHU serving radiology, nuclear med, etc. I currently have 1150 cfm exh/850 cfm supply with the difference made up between 2 doors of 1 is exterior. I have 20 air changes/hr; 52 deg supply air.
Diffuser is one 90 deg, 24x48 1-way blow hemispherical at the coroner's back, 850 cfm.
I have pressure monitoring and alarm annunciation at the head end and alarm light at the room entrance. The cv reheat box closes if positive pressure occurs.
There is a body holding refrigerator, free-stamding, max 4 body count. They use it from time to time for amputee storage.
Does the refrigerator need exh? (and air changes/quantity)?
The exh fan is at grade currently. The ER entrance is about 50' away. To put the fan up high would look like heck and there is an intake on the sidewall of the hip roof. (There is a AHU in the attic space). Access on the roof for the fan is a major concern.
There are no intake louvers within 25' of the current exh fan location (sidewall at grade).
Shall I look at filters to effectively filter the odors?
I or no-one here has done morgue design.





RE: Morgue design inquiry
With regard to body fridges, the ones I've been involved with have been of the "pass-through" type; they slide the bodies in from outside the post-mortem room and then open a door at the post-mortem room end to take the body in for dissection. There is therefore no special requirement for ventilating the fridge itself. One end of it is in the post-mortem room, which is ventilated, and the other end of it is in the body-handling area, which is also ventilated.
I hope this helps, but of course it is likely that you have local codes, etc in your own country which provide similar but more binding guidance.
Brian
RE: Morgue design inquiry
The room is a single 13' x 25' room.
RE: Morgue design inquiry
The supply air is typicaly from the feet end of the tabel and the exhaust is at the head end. You should have a high and low exhaust grille. Look at a fume hood exhaust fan to get the discharge high into the air.