Energy Efficiency Strategies for Hospitals in Australia: Analysis

This report investigates energy efficiency in Australian hospitals, addressing high energy consumption due to 24-hour operations. It reviews the literature on energy usage, including lighting, heating, air conditioning, and new technologies. The study employs a multiple case study methodology to analyze various strategies, such as co-generation, renewable energy sources, and technological upgrades. The report discusses data collection methods, ethical considerations, and provides recommendations for reducing energy consumption and costs, contributing to public energy deficit reduction. It emphasizes the importance of energy management strategies and the potential benefits of implementing energy-saving measures in the hospital sector. The conclusion and recommendations focus on practical steps hospitals can take to improve their energy efficiency and reduce their environmental impact.

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EFFICENT ENERGY USE IN AUSTRALIA HOSPITALS
Energy Efficiency in Australia Hospitals
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EFFICENT ENERGY USE IN AUSTRALIA HOSPITALS
Abstract
Australian electricity sector undergoes various challenges such as having high deficit rate of
electricity, high transmission among others that are as a result of high consumption by
institutions such as hospitals. Many hospitals operate by the 24hrs system, leading to vast usage
of the amount of energy. About 30% of Australian hospitals consume averagely 60% of the total
public sector energy, that’s way too high as compared to other industries. Hospitals can address
the energy efficiency through various strategies such as the use of co-generation, use of natural
and renewable energy sources, remodification of the machines among many others. That will
ensure much consumption of energy. The low energy management strategies in these hospitals
have led to high energy consumption. The paper focuses on using proper strategy in the
Australian hospitals in managing the energy usage to reduce the public energy deficit.
Table of Contents

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1.0.0 Introduction.............................................................................................................................4
2.0.0 Literature review.....................................................................................................................5
2.1.0 Australia Hospitals Energy Consumption...........................................................................5
2.2.0 Energy Efficiency Strategies...............................................................................................6
2.2.1 Lighting Strategies..........................................................................................................7
2.2.2 Heating System................................................................................................................8
2.2.3 Air conditioning and ventilation......................................................................................9
2.2.4 New Technologies...........................................................................................................9
2.3.0 Summary of the Literature Review...................................................................................10
3.0.0 Study Methodology..............................................................................................................10
3.1.0 Aim of the Study...............................................................................................................11
3.2.0 Objectives..........................................................................................................................11
3.3.0 Study Hypothesis..............................................................................................................12
3.4.0 Research Logic..................................................................................................................12
3.5.0 Research Philosophy.........................................................................................................13
3.6.0 Study Design.....................................................................................................................14
3.6.1 Multiple case studies.........................................................................................................14
3.7.0 The Case Studies...............................................................................................................15
4.0.0 Data Collection.....................................................................................................................16
4.1.0 Ethical Issues.....................................................................................................................17

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EFFICENT ENERGY USE IN AUSTRALIA HOSPITALS
5.0.0 Discussion.............................................................................................................................17
6.0.0 Conclusion............................................................................................................................18
6.1.0 Recommendation..............................................................................................................18
7.0.0 List of References.................................................................................................................20

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1.0.0 Introduction
Management of energy through various strategies is a practical aspect as it reduces the energy
cost; protect the environment and saves money. Australian energy consumption rate rose by 2%
to about 6.100 pet joules in 2016(Court, Jouvet & Lants, 2018, p.31). The level is the highest
amount of energy that has ever been experienced by the energy sector. During 2015-16 the
energy productivity: that’s the gross domestic divided by the energy consumption, was relatively
flat with the subsequent annual growth of 2% for the successive ten years. Most of the
institutions in Australia depend on energy for their daily operations and consume a lot of energy.
Energy consumptions by sectors in Australia differ about the size, type of services and the
intensity of the machines. The total of energy consumption by Hospitals is quite high since they
operate on the daily basis of the 24hrs system all the year (Papineau 2017, p.198). In these
hospitals, there are always significant buildings with vast machines and lighters that are
important in maintaining the lifecycle of the patients within the vicinities. The daily usage of
energy in such hospitals is considered high.

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Figure 1: Amount of Energy Consumption in Australia (obtained from Ozkan 2018)
4%
2%
48%
37%
Australia Energy Consumption
Hydroecletric
Renewables
Coal
Oil
In the current world, fuel-based energy such as old natural gas coal, fossils, and water generated
power are the significant sources of energy used in most of the industrial activities (Ozkan 2018,
p. 42). Above 48 % of the industrial energy needs are met by use of coal that are significant
emitters of carbon (ii) oxide into the atmosphere, which has reasonable adverse effects on the
natural environment. Research shows that shortly, most of the renewable energy will be depleted
hence most of the power driven activities will be stranded thus calling for efficient strategies
used in managing the energy consumptions are essential in decreasing the hospital's energy
bills(Croner & Frankovic 2018,p.110). Therefore this paper explores the possible strategies that
can be used by Australian hospitals in reducing energy consumptions.

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2.0.0 Literature review
Energy refers to efforts or power used to perform a task. In this context, energy refers to the
power obtained from the utilization of chemical resource to produce heat and light. Hospitals use
different forms of energy in the daily operations such as electricity, fuel, gas, wood, thermal and
solar (Pincetl et al 2014, p.873). The latter forms of energy are considered as the renewable and
are always cheap as compared to others.
Energy forms a vital input in every institution’s operations and the whole country and with the
increasing number of industries and organizations; the energy demand also increases
considerably. The high demand of energy ignites the cost met by such institutions in acquiring
the energy services resulting into high operation cost for the respective organizations. The cost is
quite high for institutions such as hospitals that depend on the energy to save the lives of
individuals especially those that are in comma state: require throughout supply of power to
operate the machines (Burpee & McDade 2014, p.32). The full-time usage of energy by
hospitals, resulting in high energy bills calls for proper management of the energy to make the
hospital because of operations to be manageable. Otherwise, there will be significant losses.
2.1.0 Australia Hospitals Energy Consumption
Australia energy use intensity varies from less than 100 to more than 1800 kBtu/ft square across
all the hospital with hospitals that are at the 95th percentiles consuming three times more than
those that at the 5th percentile(Cuddeback 2014,p.152). The consumptions of energy by the
hospitals differ by various characteristics such as full-time equivalent, number of staffed beds per
square meter

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2.2.0 Energy Efficiency Strategies
Energy efficiency refers to the quantity of energy that is required to facilitate the output of
activity. It is the ratio between the amounts of outcome performance; goods services ad
compared to the energy input (McCaffrie 2016, p.874). The efficiency of energy is measured
through the relationship of E/O whereby the E is the total amount of consumed energy while is
the total output of performance and services.
The energy saving measures and strategies in hospitals will ensure that the rate of consumption is
reduced, a strategy that is advantageous to both the institutions and the country as a whole.
(Poullikras, Kourtis & Hadijipaschalis 2013, p.989). Among the strategies that Australia
hospitals are categorized under there aspects that are simple measures, low-cost measures and
reconstruction measures.
The simple measures form strategies that do not require much money to implement and are
always applied on a daily basis (Rabner 2012, p.8). The measures always depend on the
behaviour of the energy users within the vicinity such as switching off the sockets and lamps that
are not in use and also using natural light during the day instead of the artificial light. These
measures are always cultured and adopted by the employees depending on the rules laid by the
hospitals.
The low-cost measures entail activities and actions that are undertaken once in an extended
period and always financed by the existing administrators of the hospitals. Such costs at times
may be returned to the investor within the same administrative year that is usually less than two
years. Finally, the reconstruction measures are actions that require a considerable amount of

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EFFICENT ENERGY USE IN AUSTRALIA HOSPITALS
capital to implement (Di Giuljo et al 2017, p.245). The implementation of such measure always
requires a socio-techno-economic survey to access the viability of the investment.
However, most of these measures lie in the daily operations of the hospital that attract a high
amount of energy. The 24hr operation system of most of the hospitals in Australia needs
strategies that will ensure that the energy consumption is reduced to the minimal level (Pinetl et
al 2014, p.872). Some of the possible plans for the 24hr system lies on the lighting, air-
condition, electricity, and heating.
2.2.2 Heating System
Most of the hospitals use electricity as a form of energy. However some also use gases for
cooking staffs and patient’s foods, and warming of the patient’s rooms to control temperature.
The everyday use of such energy results into high consumptions and these can be addressed
through the introduction of alternatives such as thermal insulation for gas consumption, using
insulation to non-insulated buildings. Additionally, usage of natural gas instead of oil can be of
great significance and can reduce the consumption of energy to about 25% from 60%.
Co-generation System in Mater Hospital
The most efficient way of addressing energy consumption through heating today is through
construction and instalment of co-generation system purposed to produce heat and electricity at
the same time reducing the level of consumption. The co-generation also commonly known to as
combined heat and power simultaneously produce two forms of energy from a single fuel and are capable
of operating up to 70 per cent higher efficiency than single-generations facilities. The system utilizes

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EFFICENT ENERGY USE IN AUSTRALIA HOSPITALS
what is to be wasted such as a pollutant, by producing extra energy, eventually saving the
environment.This strategy has been employed by Mater Hospital in Australia that has provided
the hospital with an N+1 redundancy. Using the system, the hospital was able to reduce energy
consumption by approximately 14 percent (kWh) hence reducing energy demand by46 precent
(kVa).
The most common gas-generation that can be used by the hospitals is a gas-fired generator. The
co-generation plants produce both electricity for lighting and heat energy for heating water,
space heating and sterilization of surgical equipment’s (Mart et al. 2016, p.1254). Shortly, the tri-
generators will be more applicable when fully launched into the market, since the new machines
consume the extra heat in the absorption chiller to generate cold water used for air conditioning
system in the same facility.
The process is called solar cooling and is advantageous since it is a renewable form of energy
with no greenhouse gas emissions. The system is applicable in hot areas that have long hot
periods and will save a lot of energy and cost to the hospitals that will adopt the tri-generator
(Stojiljkovic et al. 2012). Additionally, the hospitals can employ heat pumps such as such those
designed from the sewage and solar energy to heat water system.
2.2.1 Lighting Strategies
Hospital lighting sector consumes a lot of energy to give clear illumination during night and
daytime, especially in operations rooms. To manage the amount of the energy consumed in

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lighting, hospitals need to employee energy saving potential lights and bulbs in the indoors
positions (Lee et al 2018). While on the outdoor positioning, that requires security lamps with
bright lights, capacitors can be used to correct the power consumptions hence reducing to a
considerable amount of about 50%.
The lighting of new hospitals can be enhanced during the constructions by having a design that
maximizes the use of natural daytime to decrease the quantity of non-natural light needed:
through this, considerable lighting cost is saved. Studies that assessed the role of natural light in
buildings suggest those brighter sunlit rooms reduce stress and depression among the patients,
hence reducing their stay in hospitals. The reduction of the stay period is indirectly linked with
the energy consumption in those hospitals.
Figure 2: Australia Hospitals Energy Consumption (obtained from Burpee & MacDade 2014)
42.80%
18.10%
16.40%
13.70%
9.30%
Australia Hospitals Energy Consumption
Cooling
Lighting
Ventilation
Heating
New Technologies

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EFFICENT ENERGY USE IN AUSTRALIA HOSPITALS
2.2.3 Air conditioning and ventilation
A large number of Australian’s hospitals is always populated with patients that require fresh air
and stable temperature all the time through the use of a cooling system that consumes a lot of
energy (Cubi et al 2015, p.231). The cooling system should be energy saving in that the design
should allow better control whenever needed. However, adequate thermal insulations and
improvement and maintenance of the system are capable of reducing the needs for cooling.
Hospitals can also adopt low energy efficient ways of ventilating the rooms of the hospitals such
as displacement ventilation (Melikov 2016, p.116). Through this, the outside air is impelled in at
the base level; whereby the cold air will push the warm air that had been collected in the room
upwards towards the roof and escape to the atmosphere through the exhaust system. The system
is more favourable than overhead ventilation supply system a less costly since less energy is
consumed.
2.2.4 New Technologies
Hospitals can considerably reduce the electricity consumption through the adoption of new
technologies that have low electricity consumptions, unlike the old motors that require a large
amount of energy to operate (Fraile, San-Jose & Gonzalez-Alonso 2014, and p.3284).
Additionally, hospitals can correct power through the use of capacitors to reduce the energy
consumptions. Shortly, health facilities will be efficient and buildings will be constructed in a
good manner to have energy saving and efficient structures, where health workers will be in a
contended and well lit workplace provided by the solar system(Pinto & Castor 2017,p.69).