• About
• Take Action to Save Energy
• Activities
  • 179d Tax Calculator
  • Advanced Energy Design Guides
  • Advanced Energy Retrofit Guides
  • Energy Asset Score
  • Buildings Performance Database
  • Data Centers
  • Energy Modeling Software
  • Global Superior Energy Performance Partnership
  • Research Projects
    • Hospital Energy Use
    • Life Cycle Inventory Database
    • Performance Monitoring & Evaluation
    • Reference Buildings
  • State & Local Energy Efficiency Action Network
  • Standard Energy Efficiency Data Platform
  • Technology Demonstrations
  • Technology Performance Exchange
  • Workforce Development & Training
• Partner with DOE
• Commercial Building Resource Database
• Research & Development
• Codes & Standards

Researching Energy Use in Hospitals

The Buildings Technology Program (BTP) is monitoring hospitals to help facility and energy managers identify ways to save energy. Hospital professionals find it challenging to identify "energy hogs" in their buildings because the industry lacks actual energy use data for mechanical systems and devices. Professionals have asked for real-world information to identify cost-effective energy saving opportunities. This research ultimately will help hospitals improve energy efficiency, freeing up funding to improve healthcare services.

Energy Saving Guidance

BTP is monitoring three hospitals to collect data on the energy used by total reheat, fans, large hard-wired medical equipment, space lighting, pumps, heating, humidifiers, cooling, dehumidification, service water heating, and miscellaneous plug loads. When this effort is completed in January 2013, BTP will publish:

• Easy-to-interpret profiles of hospital energy end-use consumption—Hospital facility managers could see up to 20% energy savings in their buildings through upgrades and commissioning by combining this study's energy end-use profiles with a National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) report on saving energy in large hospitals.
• Step-by-step instructions to monitor actual energy use—Examining end uses for a specific hospital is an accurate way to identify energy-wasting equipment. Hospital facility and energy managers will use these data to improve the development of energy baselines and pinpoint areas for improvement.

Members of the Hospital Energy Alliance representing more than 500 million square feet of hospital space–and facility managers throughout the industry will use these results to identify cost-effective energy saving opportunities.

Complementary Studies

This project will complement the University of Washington's hospital end use energy study  and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's (LBNL) hospital benchmarking study. LBNL is developing detailed guidance for collecting, processing, and analyzing energy end use data in hospitals. The goal is to use the data to calculate baseline metrics and normalize the metrics based on weather variations, hospital size, and hospital activity. The metrics for individual hospitals can then be compared to health system portfolios and peer facilities using the real-world data collected by NREL and the University of Washington as well as tools such as EnergyIQ.

Hospital Monitoring Projects

The U.S. Department of Energy committed $750,000 of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to this project. NREL, the laboratory overseeing this research, competitively selected the following three hospitals to monitor for one year.

Advocate Condell Medical Center

Advocate Condell Medical Center (ACMC) is a 600,000-square foot, 283-bed multidisciplinary hospital. Serving the northern Chicago suburban area since 1928, it is the largest healthcare provider in Lake County. ACMC has more than 2,400 employees and provides services in fields such as obstetrics, emergency care, radiology, cardiology, neurosurgery, gastroenterology, oncology, and rehabilitation.

State University of New York, Upstate Medical University, East Wing/Concentrated Care Center

The East Wing, also known as the Concentrated Care Center, is a seven-story addition to the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University Hospital. Opened in 1995, the building covers approximately 143,000 square feet and includes the Department of Emergency Medicine, a diagnostic imaging center with three CT scanners and two MRI scanners, an endoscopy department, and a pharmacy with preparatory laboratories. There are also 58 single-patient intensive care rooms that include 14 infectious isolation rooms and two protective environment rooms.

The Gray Building, Massachusetts General Hospital

The Gray Building is an inpatient facility on the Massachusetts General Hospital campus. It has 16 floors above ground, a basement, and a subbasement for a total floor area of 332,664 square feet. It was built in 1966, and has been renovated substantially over the years. The Gray Building includes exam rooms, treatment rooms, procedure rooms, operating rooms, patient rooms, a research laboratory, mechanical and electrical spaces, horizontal and vertical transportation spaces (corridors, elevators, and stairs), and office, storage, and common areas.

For more information, contact Michael Sheppy.