Activ: Treatment with comfort

'Cure' and 'care'

Activ is an independent Dutch real estate & construction management firm, specialised within the healthcare sector. Activ has a dual focus: ‘cure’ and ‘care’. Eugène Klutman, Director and Co-Owner of Activ, talks about the first one: “The cure side is about independent treatment clinics that carry out plannable care, such as at Bergman Clinics and Equipe healthcare companies.” On the ‘care’ side, he gives the renovation of nursing homes as an example, but also pleasant life-course flats for seniors with a care requirement.

An orthopaedic clinic from the Bergman Clinics mentioned above is the facility that Hysopt looked into. This international organisation, active in the Netherlands, Germany, and Scandinavia, is committed to making healthcare affordable, accessible and of high quality.  They have over 60 focus clinics under their name, and over 30 years of experience in health care.

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The use of Hysopt’s Digital Twin  

Generally speaking, installers will assist you with heating- and cooling related questions to the best of their ability. But they are hardly ever independent and thus free from prejudice. Fortunately, such independent research method is Hysopt’s specialty.

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“I was triggered by Hysopt’s independent research method to carry out some pilots. Normally you go to an installer when you have problems, and then you get a response from the installer’s insights and skills. But the question is, is that the best advice? My experience is that this is often not the case. An independent research method associated with the shortcomings of a climate control system, the solutions and investments involved is what I need!” specifies Eugène Klutman, Director and Co-Owner of Activ.

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Activ knew that the current installation was underperforming, but not what the exact problem was. It was far too hot, so the first need was to improve comfort. Since the current installation is nearly 15 years old, Activ wondered if it was still adequate? What is needed to improve performance in line with current climate requirement? And which considerations should you take into account for a future-proof system? To answer these questions full system transparency is required, so they turned to Hysopt’s Digital Twin software for answers.

To create a full picture Hysopt made an extensive analysis of the installation. The current system ran on 2 main components: a heat pump and a thermal energy storage system. The main problem? The way these systems were built prohibited them from working simultaneously and therefore they had limited performance. The analysis Hysopt’s Digital Twin Software provided, showed multiple scenarios in which the maximalisation of the current system was guaranteed. Due to the irreversible design flaws that were made when the installation was first built it proved to be impossible to utilise both system components simultaneously. Hysopt’s transparent insight ensured that the defects could be substantiated and that no time, effort and money were wasted, but the best solution could be immediately presented.

Since the existing climate management system must meet the requirements required for this intensive care, it goes without saying that optimal comfort is of the utmost importance. After the careful and in-depth analyses of its installations, Hysopt concluded that with a minor modification of the installation, an immediate improvement in efficiency of 9% was achieved.

The aim was to demonstrate in an efficient and reliable manner how to improve climate performance. The analyses also showed that it could yield an equally large saving on energy consumption. The latter was a very welcome bonus, given current energy prices. On top of that, the Hysopt Digital Twin software concluded that the current installation, with the right settings and proper maintenance, could easily last another 10 to 15 years, minimizing unnecessary component replacement.  

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Joining forces

Activ has always relied on the expertise of third parties without being certain in advance. Correct knowledge is very important for their organisation; it is the only way to make the right, informed decisions. If an independent third party knows more on a particular topic, why not use it? For Activ the goal is always to provide the best solution to their customers.

The Hysopt Digital Twin was able to lend its insights to Activ and provide them expert knowledge on a complex issue. As Klutman says: “It is impressive to see how thoroughly the analysis was carried out!”