Advanced HVAC Technology Demonstration Project to Reduce Natural Gas Use in Hospitals
Maintaining indoor air quality standards through outcomes-based ventilation protocol
Mazzetti, Inc.
Recipient
Irvine, CA
Recipient Location
37th
Senate District
73rd
Assembly District
$1,216,705
Amount Spent
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
The project is complete and the final report is under review. The project results indicate that administrative areas of hospitals, such as offices, conference rooms, and any non-patient spaces, can (and should) implement variable volume controls to reduce ventilation much of the time. Since a significant portion (25% - 30%) of hospitals' footprints is administrative, this will be a meaningful measure. The project recommendations include a number of code proposals for the national standards and for California's mechanical and energy codes.
The Issue
Hospitals are among the most energy-intensive facilities in the U.S. and one of the highest end-users of natural gas in buildings in California. Hospitals rely on legacy ventilation protocols requiring a fixed number of air changes per hour, regardless of room use and occupancy. This results in over-ventilation of some rooms and under-ventilation of others. Natural gas is used to heat the air in the ventilation system, leading to wasted energy when the air is exchanged unnecessarily. Forty percent more natural gas is being used than is necessary to meet ventilation needs and indoor air quality standards for safety and occupant comfort.
Project Innovation
This project demonstrates an efficient, advanced air-distribution approach to reduce energy waste in hospitals by using real-time indoor air quality sensors, advanced fault detection and diagnostic software, and monitoring-based commissioning. The project integrates a suite of advanced sensor technologies and diagnostic software in a pre-commercial energy management platform to improve operational efficiency of HVAC systems while significantly reducing natural gas use. ASHRAE Standard 62.1 applies to all commercial buildings in California except for hospitals. Standard 62.1 contains metrics for measuring environmental contaminants and ventilation rates based on occupancy and space contamination and provides three approaches to meet the standard: 1) ventilation rates; 2) natural ventilation; and 3) Indoor Air Quality Procedure (IAQP). This project focuses on using advanced sensors and software to validate and demonstrate that using IAQP can meet indoor air quality standards and result in a 30-50% reduction in on-site natural gas consumption. The IAQP method is currently not used by hospitals because of the complexities associated with the regulatory approval process.
Project Benefits
This project uses sensors and energy management equipment to conduct real-time monitoring of hospital HVAC systems, indoor air quality, and energy usage while measuring environmental contaminants and ventilation rates. The aim is to demonstrate that air exchanges in a hospital can be performed according to indoor air quality needs such as air contaminants and occupancy – rather than a fixed number of exchanges per hour depending on room type. The benefits of this approach are increased health and safety for patients, reduced energy use, longer HVAC equipment life, bill savings, and reduced GHG emissions. The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development will consider code changes for California hospitals based on this research.
Affordability
Hospitals are among the highest energy users, consuming more energy per square foot than many other buildings in other industrial and commercial sectors. Natural gas is the most used fuel in most large hospitals, primarily for space and water heating. This project has the potential to reduce natural gas use by 40 percent, with concurrent electricity savings of approximately 30 percent. Replicating this project throughout all 457 hospitals in California could save more than 127 million therms of natural gas annually. Assuming $1.00/therm equates to saving $127 million annually.
Key Project Members
Austin Barolin
Subrecipients
Enovity, Inc.
Mazzetti, Inc.
Connexx Energy
Healthy Buildings
Climatec, LLC
Pam Seidenman Consulting
Match Partners
Advanced Microgrid Solutions, Inc.
Kaiser Foundation Hospitals
Healthy Buildings
Climatec, LLC
