# How many vacuum pumps does a hospital plant need?

**How many pumps should a hospital medical vacuum plant have for redundancy?**

Under the NHS England guidance HTM 02-01 (2026) and Portugal's ACSS, a hospital medical vacuum plant has three or more pumps: HTM asks that the design flow is still met during maintenance on any pump plus a further single fault, and ACSS asks for three automatic pumps, each sized for 100% of the nominal flow.

## HTM 02-01 (England, 2026)

The vacuum plant configuration is based on BS EN ISO 7396-1 and consists of three or more pumps. They are arranged so that, during maintenance on any pump and a subsequent single fault in any component (for example the control system), the remaining pumps and components still supply the system design flow (10.17). HTM gives example pump sets:

| Pump set (HTM 02-01, Table 20) | Each pump sized at |
|---|---|
| Triplex | 100% of design flow |
| Quadruplex | 50% of design flow |
| Sextuplet | 25% of design flow |
| Octuplet | 17% of design flow |

In the HTM example of a triplex plant, two pumps form the primary supply, the third pump the secondary supply, and portable suction equipment with battery backup the tertiary supply (Table 21). Smaller pumps can be used if a temporary pump is connected during maintenance to keep 100% of the design flow.

For non-acute sites with low vacuum demand, such as hospices and satellite dialysis units, a duplex plant may be considered, for example two pumps each giving about 50% of the design flow, provided resilience and continuity of supply are maintained; the level of resilience should be justified through risk assessment (10.10).

- No single component failure in the plant control unit should cause loss of plant output (10.46).
- Two or more pumps should not start at the same time when power is applied (10.47).
- The vacuum supply system is connected to the essential electrical supply (10.42).

## ACSS ET 03/2006 (Portugal, v.2024)

Three automatic pumps, each at 100% of the nominal flow, arranged so that during maintenance or failure of any pump the others keep the design flow of the system (section 4.8).

## ULTRAVAC

ULTRAVAC centralised systems are built with 1 to 12 vacuum pumps. The datasheet table lists triplex plants from the 3.10/200 (3 × 10 m³/h at 50 Hz) to the 3.300/1000 (3 × 300 m³/h at 50 Hz).

### Does portable suction count as a supply source?

In the HTM 02-01 example, portable suction equipment with battery backup is the tertiary supply behind the plant pumps.

### Can a small non-acute site use two pumps?

HTM 02-01 (2026) allows a duplex plant to be considered for low-demand, non-acute sites such as hospices, if resilience and continuity of supply are maintained and justified by risk assessment.

## Sources

- [NHS England, HTM 02-01 Medical gas pipeline systems, Part A (2026 edition), paras 10.10, 10.17, 10.42, 10.46, 10.47 and Tables 20 and 21](https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/health-technical-memorandum-02-01-medical-gas-pipeline-systems-part-a-design-installation-validation-verification-aug-2026.pdf)
- [ACSS, ET 03/2006 v.2024, Especificações técnicas para gases medicinais e aspiração em edifícios hospitalares, section 4.8](https://www.acss.min-saude.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/ET-03_2006_v2024-Gases-medicinais_VF.pdf)
- [ULTRAVAC datasheet, p. 5](https://www.ultracontrolo.com/products/ultravac)

Reviewed: 2026-10-22. Ultra Controlo engineering. https://library.ultracontrolo.com/answers/how-many-vacuum-pumps-does-a-hospital-need/