Advanced Energy Design Guidance Offered for Large Hospitals

May 21, 2012
Free guidance to saving energy in hospitals is available from ASHRAE.

Free guidance to saving energy in hospitals is available from ASHRAE.

Developed by a group of energy professionals drawn from ASHRAE, The American Institute of Architects, the Illuminating Engineering Society, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Green Building Council, "Advanced Energy Design Guide (AEDG) for Large Hospitals: 50% Energy Savings" provides recommendations for achieving 50-percent energy savings compared with the minimum requirements of ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.

While the guide focuses on standard mid-size to large hospitals (typically, at least 100,000 sq ft), the strategies apply to all sizes and classifications of large hospitals. Space types covered include conference, lobby, lounge, and office areas; reception/waiting areas and examination and treatment rooms; clean and soiled workrooms; nurse stations, nurseries, and patient rooms; operating rooms, procedure rooms, recovery rooms, and sterilizer-equipment areas; pharmacies and laboratories; triage, trauma, and emergency rooms; physical-therapy and radiology/imaging rooms; and storage, receiving, and mechanical/electrical/telecommunications rooms.

Included in the guide are recommendations related to building opaque envelope, fenestration, lighting systems, HVAC systems, building automation and controls, outdoor-air requirements, service water heating, measurement and verification, and plug and process loads, including kitchen equipment.

Among the technologies and philosophies highlighted in the book are:

• The use of shape and form to give access to daylighting in spaces without windows.

• The daylighting of staff areas and publics spaces and the specification of proper glazing to control solar gain.

• The elimination of reheat.

• The reduction and control of plug and process loads.

• Reductions in interior and exterior lighting.

• Light-emitting-diode (LED) surgery lights, which allow surgeons to set the thermostat in operating rooms higher.

• Measurement and verification.

Other books in the 50-percent-savings series deal with small to medium office buildings, K-12 schools, and medium to big-box retail buildings.

For more information on the AEDG series or to download a free copy of a guide, click here. Print versions of the guides can be purchased for $69 by ASHRAE members and $82 by non-members. Copies can be ordered by phone at 1-800-527-4723 (United States and Canada) or 404-636-8400, by fax at 404-321-5478, or online here.