Realities of an ‘all-electric’ hospital discussed

Three senior electrical engineering specialists from multinational professional services firm, Arup, discuss the findings of a study on the cost and environmental benefits of replacing gas-fired boilers in hospital buildings with electric-based systems, among the key objectives being to significantly reduce carbon emissions. They conclude that trends in fuel prices and decarbonisation of the electricity grid indicate that in the short term for many countries, ‘the lower carbon solution is an electrical heating system one’, while longer term, the operational fuel cost will close its margin on a gas-fired system.

The healthcare sector - hospitals, health services, and the medical supply chain – of OECD countries plus China and India, constitutes around four per cent of total global carbon emissions. 1 As reduced carbon targets are being implemented to minimise climate change impacts, governments and healthcare organisations have a major role to play in reducing the world’s carbon emissions.

Approaches to carbon reduction are multi-faceted, and the ‘lean, clean, green’ approach looks to minimise energy consumption through intelligent building design, including form and orientation (lean), prior to implementing low carbon systems (clean), and offsetting carbonised fuel sources through renewable technologies (green).