Energy Management in Hospitals

Overview

In order to increase the efficiency of energy saving programmes, many IEA countries are using or developing energy audit procedures. Energy audit refers to the methods used to break down the energy consumption in an existing building or system into components. This information may then be used to identify and evaluate energy conservation opportunities and to prescribe appropriate energy saving actions for a particular building or system.

During recent years much attention has been focused on the development of the methods, training and instruments needed for saving energy in hospitals. A variety of approaches have been tried with varying success.

All IEA countries need to develop simple, reliable methods for identifying and quantifying the energy saving opportunities in hospitals. These techniques need to be verified before they can be used with confidence.

The energy conservation opportunities thus identified may include in the first instance energy management measures without capital investments, secondly measures with low cost investments and, thirdly, possible higher cost investment retrofits.

Hospitals incorporate most types of technical systems encountered in other types of buildings. On the other hand, their energy consumption patterns tend to be less sensitive to external climatic conditions than most other building types. Also they require special conditions than most other building types. They therefore require special consideration with respect to energy management. For these reasons, international collaboration was found to be both appropriate and beneficial.