Energy Conservation

Energy Conservation

As energy prices rise and energy security becomes an issue of increasing importance for the healthcare sector, reining in energy use will be paramount. The challenge is to reduce energy and water consumption while enhancing patient outcome and minimizing costs.

Hospitals have a large and costly environmental footprint: 

• According to the Energy Information Administration hospitals are third only to food services and food sales in terms of consumption of energy per square foot in the United States.
• U.S. hospitals use more than 800 trillion Btu (British thermal units) of energy and spend over $9 billion on energy annually often equaling 1 – 3 % of a typical hospital’s operating budget.
• The US Department of Energy notes that hospital energy costs rose 56 percent from $3.89 per square foot in 2003 to $6.07 per square foot in 2008, and predicts those costs will continue to rise in the near term. The total square footage of U.S. hospitals in 2010 was an estimated 2.24 billion square feet, a number that grows by about 42 million square feet each year.
• According to Practice Greenhealth water heating accounts for 28% of the energy used in U.S. healthcare buildings, space heating 23%, lighting 16%, and office equipment 6%. Other energy needs like air conditioning, cooking and refrigeration together make up the remaining 27%.
• A 2007 study conducted by Practice Greenhealth estimated that healthcare accounted for 8 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and 7 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions.
• Hospitals are both energy and water ‘guzzlers’: Large hospitals consumed 5.5% of the total energy delivered to the commercial sector in 2007, up from 4.3% in 2003, according to a U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report. The report also found that the nation’s 3,040 large hospitals used about 133 billion gallons of water, accounting to $615 million in water bills, in 2007.

The current infrastructure that delivers energy and water to hospitals relies heavily on fossil fuels – with nearly 90% of the United States’ energy derived from fossil fuels that emit such toxins as mercury, arsenic and greenhouse gases, as well as particulate matter such as NOx and SOx. Consequently, these byproducts negatively affect human health through the air we breathe and the water we drink, and have been linked to premature mortality, chronic bronchitis, asthma attacks and various respiratory symptoms.

Hospitals can improve their environmental impact in the realm of energy usage through energy saving and alternative purchasing strategies. They can optimize existing systems to become more energy efficient or they can purchase energy which is produced through ‘Renewables’.

What Carilion is doing: Saving Energy in various ways

These are some areas where Carilion successfully implemented so-called ‘demand-side management’ improvements to increase energy efficiency or reduce energy consumption:

Lighting

Lighting consumes close to 35 percent of the electricity used in commercial buildings in the United States and affects other building systems through its electrical requirements and the waste heat that it produces. Upgrading lighting systems with efficient light sources, fixtures, and controls can reduce lighting energy use, improve the visual environment, and affect the sizing of HVAC and electrical systems.

In recent years, LED-based lighting products have begun to compete successfully with rival technologies on the characteristics of light quality, efficacy, dimmability, and almost every other metric except price. But now, with LED prices falling rapidly and new designs for LEDs continuing to emerge from lighting labs around the world that push quality and efficacy ever higher, LED adoption rates are accelerating. LEDs are expected to be the dominant lighting technology over the next decade, with LED lighting products (including lamps and luminaires) in commercial building markets forecast to grow from $2.7 billion in 2013 to more than $25 billion in 2021.

Over the last several month conventional light bulbs have been replaced by LEDs light at several Carilion locations. For example retrofitting took place in the main entrance area, public restrooms and the Java-the-Hut Coffee Shop. The old hanging lights there – a total of more than 50 – were 50 watt bulbs. Now the power consumption is reduced to 7 watts. Ceiling lights went from 300 to 40 watts. This single replacement project alone resulted in bringing down energy usage to a mere 8% of its former rate (from a total of 13,150 watts to 1,172 watts). The original costs of changing bulbs from 50 watts to 7 watts are offset within 9 month – after this time you have net dollar savings. Switching from 175 watt bulbs to LED lights in parking garages at RMH produced a cost savings of $30,00 per year alone. 

LEDs not only use less energy, they last much longer with a life expectancy of 50,000 hours. This means less waste (including mercury) and maintenance reduction: one full maintenance day per month was already saved by switching to LEDs!

Retrofitting is ongoing with Carilion signs and additional lights from neon to LEDs, both at Roanoke Memorial and Roanoke Community Hospital. And more Energy saving projects have started – like the first installation of Occupancy/Vacancy sensors which turn lights on when a person enters a space and off when nobody is in the room.

Solar Power

Construction is complete on our solar field at Carilion New River Valley Medical Center! The approximately 4,000 panels will generate clean energy and supply 17 percent of the hospital's annual electrical requirements, resulting in a projected savings of $1.5 million in energy costs over the next 20 years.

Optimization of Heating and Air Condition Systems

Carilion has a system wide High Performance Building agreement with Trane which provides our heating, ventilation, and air conditioning services.  Under this system, Trane evaluates our energy savings as well as our mechanical units.  Continuous monitoring by Trane helps identify cost-avoidance opportunities, and to maintain energy efficiency throughout the year.  The process benchmarks the building's energy consumption against other similar hospital buildings in the same geographic region.

Greenhouse gases that are known to cause global warming--particularly carbon dioxide (CO2)--are linked to the production of energy at power plants. The more energy a building uses, the greater its environmental impact.  Beginning in 2009, the carbon footprint of five of Carilion’s facilities were calculated annually by determining each building’s total energy use for the past 12 months, then converting the various fuels into tons of CO2 released on an annual basis. This is an approximation of the total CO2 that was emitted by the local power plant as a result of the electricity that was generated to serve the building's heating, cooling and operational needs.

Since 2009, energy conservation measures, system analysis and upgrade of the heating and air conditioning systems by Trane have resulted in a 17,689 metric ton decrease in CO2 emissions.

This is the equivalent to avoiding the CO2 emissions of 3,724 automobiles or planting 42,807 trees!

CNRV was able to significantly cut its energy consumption by implementing a series of straightforward improvements. CNRV took on an energy overhaul that started with benchmarking using Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager, which was a vital first step in managing the facility’s energy. Next, the facility accomplished a series of energy reduction measures. CNRV evaluated and retuned its HVAC system, installed additional insulation on steam valve covers, moved to a new gas supplier, and approved a plan to upgrade parking lighting from metal halides to LEDs. Scott Blankenship, CNRV’s Manager of Engineering & Maintenance, led the charge on this energy effort, and through this series of improvements, the facility saved an impressive $391,240 annually!

A white roof makes a difference

 

 

Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital has more than 50 different roofs. Two roofs (including one at the Cancer Center) have been repaired recently – a modernization which took approximately 4 months. The roofs now have rigid insulation and white reflective rubber material. This white coating means less energy needs for cooling in the summer time.