Envisioning the High Performance Hospital
By redesigning the way they use energy, hospitals can reduce consumption by 60 percent, and a newly built, code-compliant facility can save about $730,000 a year, according to new research.
“Targeting 100! Envisioning the High Performance Hospital: Implications for a New, Low Energy, High Performance Prototype” was produced by University of Washington’s Integrated Design Lab and healthcare architectural firm NBBJ.
The study was presented in May at the 2010 CleanMed Conference in Baltimore. The study was primarily funded by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance through its BetterBricks initiative.
Hospitals account for four percent of all energy consumed in the U.S. and use about two-and-a-half times the amount of energy as a comparably sized commercial building.
During three years of study, researchers conducted a comprehensive reassessment of the architectural, building mechanical and central plant systems to determine how produce a hospital design of the highest quality that consumes the least amount of energy possible, involves the lowest possible additional capital cost and is code-compliant.
A free copy of the executive summary of the study is available from BetterBricks.com (pdf). A downloadable copy of the full report is expected to be available this month from BetterBricks.
The project partners have also compiled a fact sheet about energy and healthcare facilities,which is now available for a free download (pdf).
