Strategies to maximize HVAC system output
A health care facility’s HVAC system — the chilled water plant, steam and hot water plant, and air distribution system — typically accounts for 33 percent of its electricity and 57 percent of its natural gas use. Chilled water plants also consume substantial water.
That makes these systems ripe for optimization, which means getting away from the philosophy of applying more energy to hide the symptoms of system deficiencies and, instead, finding a way to deliver the most system output with the least system input.
HVAC Management involves automatically controlling HVAC systems to deliver needed heating and cooling at energy-efficient levels. This goes beyond recommissioning or traditional static setpoints and proportional-integral-derivative-based controls. Optimization solutions should measure the system input (i.e., electric, gas, water) and the system output (i.e., heating, cooling, airflow, water flow), and use that data to operate the system in real time.
Typical optimization projects provide payback in three to five years, with savings starting immediately. In addition to automatic control, HVAC optimization provides energy monitoring and fault detection, which can enable facilities personnel to improve operations without increasing head count.
Compelling cases
Health care facilities can be subject to many conditions that would make a compelling case for HVAC optimization. Some of the leading motivations include:
Energy costs. Rising energy costs — due to rising electricity rates or increased usage — are a sign that a facility would benefit from optimization.
Optimization can help a facility to take advantage of variable rates by shifting power use where feasible to the lowest rate periods. Additionally, it can ensure that equipment is running at full capacity, which can help a facility to use less energy.
Sustainability mandates. Many organizations have a mandate to save energy and meet sustainability or carbon-footprint goals.
HVAC optimization is a logical next step and is essential to meeting aggressive sustainability goals, but it falls into the more difficult category, with higher complexity and higher cost.
