Objective
Design, construction and monitoring of the energy consumption of a hospital.
It is predicted that it will save 54% of the energy needed to run a comparable hospital designed to present-day standards.
This means an annual saving of 2.2 TOE/bed with a conventional consumption of 4 TOE/bed.
The extra investment cost should be recovered in 15 years.
The new development hospital is a 17,400 m2, 190-bed addition to an existing hospital. It contains adult acute, children and geriatric wards, an operating department, out-patients' department, pharmacy and pathology unit. There is also a kitchen and dining area and an energy centre. The site was chosen on the basis of being the most sheltered of various options, having good communications with existing hospital buildings to the north, and having excellent access and views to the south. The arrangement of the site offers some protection from the prevailing south-westerly wind; additional wind shelter is provided by a poles and wire arbour system and quick-growing plants.
The buildings are arranged around a curved 'street', from which the Nucleus templates radiate. The number of levels varies between two and three. The energy centre is well located for future expansion of the hospital, close to the most intensive energy users such as the kitchen, pathology unit and operating departments, and at the most advantageous point for heat recovery from these areas. Garden courts are located between the templates. The service functions of the kitchen/dining block and energy centre are clearly differentiated from the clinical areas of the hospital which are located in the Nucleus templates.
The entrance to the hospital is at the lowest level. The ward areas are predominantly on the top level for good daylight penetration through rooflights.
Reduction of energy demand has been achieved by using the orientation of the buildings to best effect. Windows and rooflights are double-glazed and the building is insulated to a high level, including below the ground floor (coefficient of heat transmission of 0.3 W/m2k for outside walls and 0.35 W/m2k for the roof).
Air infiltration is reduced by attention to construction details and by using the windows for ventilation only in summer. In winter, controlled mechanical ventilation is employed. Energy used for lighting is reduced byexploiting daylight through carefully designed rooflights, and by using high-efficiency fluorescent lamps throughout. The air treatment system is a low-velocity, single-duct system, with air conditioning used only where necessary. Humidification is localised to where it is needed. Catering equipment is highly efficient and uses gas, rather than steam piped from a central boiler plant. The main source of heat recovery is exhaust air from which heat can be reclaimed by run-around coils and heat pumps. Other sources are the service centre drainage system and waste incineration plant. These various sub-systems are integrated into an overall energy system, incorporating gas engine-driven alternators which power the heat pumps. A centralised energy management system is included to obtain the full potential from this system and to select the most appropriate operational strategy.
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DEM - Demonstration contractsCoordinator
NW1 3DN London
United Kingdom