Cutting the cost of hospital HVAC

Also explaining why investing in energy-efficient, low voltage drives, and high efficiency electric motors, to control such equipment, can pay major dividends for estates and facilities teams.

With constant activity and occupation, it is no wonder that hospitals are among the most energy-intensive buildings in existence. Electricity accounts for around 18 per cent of a hospital’s delivered energy use, and represents over 50 per cent of its energy costs. Reducing any healthcare facility’s energy consumption is therefore a critical cost-cutting process, especially important in today’s stricter spending regime. In no other building is indoor air quality as critical as it is in hospitals. As well as ensuring comfortable temperatures, and maintaining adequate air changes, achieving a high level of air quality can also benefit a patient’s recovery. One of the biggest energy users in a hospital is therefore the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, so if such systems can be made to work more efficiently, huge sums of money can be saved. Despite being in constant occupation, there are times in a hospital’s day when the facility will not be as busy as other times; yet many HVAC distribution systems operate at a constant flow rate, despite peak demand only being required for a small part of the day. The conventional way to control heating and cooling within hospitals is to control flow to individual rooms, while maintaining peak flow in the central HVAC system. However this method consumes considerable energy, and equipment lifespan is shortened.

Using low voltage AC drives