Exclusive Article by Jamie Costello at EMRIndustry
According to a study by Carbon Trust, more than £400m is spent on the healthcare sector in the UK. Despite all this money being used, a large proportion of this energy is being wasted, which means so is a lot of money. Of the several commercial buildings that are in use in today’s day and age, energy is most intensely used by hospitals. Where the majority of this energy is used within hospitals is through ventilation, lighting, heating, space cooling and water heating.
Of course, the comfort of patients should be the main concern for hospitals and these are the main focus in hospitals in order to achieve this. However, there are also ways hospitals can look into these 5 categories to help save energy too. Here’s how.
Water Heating
To ensure that patients are well looked after, water heating is required regularly within hospitals, but this can use up an excessive amount of energy in hospitals. One way in which hospitals can reduce energy through this method is by using hands-free controls or installing low-flow plumbing fixtures. This reduces the water use, which in turn lowers energy consumption too.
Ventilation
“Economizer Cycles” are used by most air ventilation systems which can help to control the fresh air in hospital spaces. It allows outside air, when appropriate, to circulate around the hospitals so there’s a constant flow of fresh air.
The issue with the economizer cycles is they can get stuck or fail to operate correctly. This can cause significant energy use in hospitals, using additional controls to balance the temperature in the commercial building. If the economizer was to be upgraded, this can really help with saving energy on cooling and heating methods.
Space Heating
Due to the number of residents that will be located in hospitals, large steam boilers are required in order to create steam for the building’s heating system. In order to prevent the steam from escaping these boilers, steam traps are used. These also help to prevent leaks from occurring.
Cooling and heating energy can be saved in significant amounts by reducing air volumes where excessive ventilation occurs.
Lighting
Retrofitting lighting is one way that hospitals can look to make their lighting more efficient. Replacing the existing lighting system with a newer system can easily help with preserving energy and help save costs. Additional features such as dimmers or daylight controls can also contribute towards reducing light electrical use. This can save hospitals time in exploring the idea to switch energy suppliers or locate new sources for their energy.
The advancement of technology has enabled these systems to be more controlled for the sake of reducing energy use. By implementing and installing these technologies, it can dramatically reduce how much energy is being used within hospitals.
