Direct Digital Control in Healthcare Facilities

DDC Control

Earlier this year, we discussed Direct Digital Control technology (DDC) and the important role it plays in facilities. Pairing DDC with your building automation system (BAS) offers countless benefits to facilities across a wide range of industries, including improved occupant comfort, reduced operating costs, faster response times, simplified maintenance, and a streamlined recommissioning process. This upgrade to the pulmonary system is more in line with today’s technological capabilities and rapid advancements.

While DDC has undoubtedly benefited multiple industries and facilities, the technology is extremely beneficial when used in healthcare facilities for many reasons.

The Basics of HVAC Direct Digital Control

Temperature control in hospitals and laboratories is essential to maintaining a safe environment in healthcare facilities. Not only do chillers need to be maintained at a certain temperature to safely store lab specimens and medications, but hospitals must also maintain their facilities at certain temperature and humidity levels to prevent the spread of disease. These temperature and humidity requirements vary by season and climate. This means that constant adjustments must be made, which is neither ideal nor feasible for pneumatic control systems.

This is where DDC comes in. DDC provides facility managers with the ability to set individual temperatures for hospital hallways, labs, patient rooms, waiting rooms, and more.

In addition to providing more regulated HVAC and temperature control, DDC enables maximum efficiency in any building, especially healthcare facilities. With so many components and parts working simultaneously, it’s common for lighting, temperature, HVAC, and security controls to easily get out of control in such large buildings. Installing DDC into a facility can make building processes more efficient through programmable control, so building operators can preset functions, such as schedules for lighting and temperature control in certain rooms or areas of the facility.

In addition, DDC systems are resourceful when it comes to data collection. With the ability to measure metrics such as temperature and humidity, energy usage, and more, the system is able to send real-time collected data to operators. This not only allows for quick response if any issues arise, but also allows facility managers to make adjustments to ensure the facility is always operating at peak efficiency.

Smarter Automation

In a world of never-ending to-do lists, facility managers appreciate any aspect of their jobs that can be automated—as long as it comes from a trusted source. With a DDC system (especially working in conjunction with a building management system), the ability to automate controls throughout the facility is a very useful feature for healthcare facilities that house multiple populations with different needs.

With DDC, facility managers can easily set different temperature and humidity, HVAC, and lighting controls based on the building's zones, which is especially convenient for maintaining occupant comfort and safe storage of medical samples and medications.

Interested in integrating DDC into your healthcare facility? Control Solutions is your expert!

Our team is comprised of system integration experts, in fact, it's one of our most popular services! We know that convenience and efficiency are key to saving workplaces time and money when it comes to BAS - and that's exactly what a DDC integration can provide.

Benefits include:

Single-source building system integration, including HVAC, lighting, access control, and surveillance systems

Build software integration

Remote control, monitoring, and alarming of all systems through a single web-based interface

If you're interested, contact us today to schedule a consultation with one of our integration experts.