Environmentalleader.com reported that Hospitals and health care facilities are primed for a revolution in energy efficiency achieved through changes as far-ranging as LIGHTING, cooling towers, employee workflow and even on-site solar and wind. As a sector, hospitals and health care facilities account for a disproportionate amount of energy use and emissions. Hospitals use about 2.5 times the amount of energy as a similar-sized commercial building, because they are open 24 hours a day and have extra commitments on air filtration and circulation, air cooling and waste management, experts say.
The EPA has established a five-stage approach, performed chronologically to maximize energy savings, for all commercial buildings, including hospitals. The five steps are: retrocommissioning (ensuring that existing equipment is optimized for maximum efficiency), LIGHTING EVALUATION, supplemental load reductions, updating the air handling system and right-sizing the building’s chiller.
“The first three steps are about reducing heat gain in the building,” Reed said. “The classic example is incandescent light bulbs, where 90 percent of the energy going into the bulb is not used. It just generates heat.”
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