Working in collaboration with Kelowna General Hospital, Canada, we introduced an efficient on-demand system for the HVAC, saving over 31 tonnes of CO2 and CAD$19,000 annually.
The Centennial Building of the hospital, which contains acute care departments including an emergency department and operating rooms, requires particularly high heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (‘HVAC’) standards while in use, such as increased air changes per hour and strict temperature ranges.
The operating rooms in the Centennial Building were originally intended to be used around the clock but, with another facility now running 24-hour operations, the rooms are no longer required on evenings or weekends. As a result, when facility staff learned in 2022 that reduced usage meant there is an opportunity to relax or ‘setback’ the HVAC parameters during unoccupied periods, we assembled a team to increase our energy efficiency.
The local renewable energy provider utility, FortisBC, funded an energy study that was completed by Rocky Point Engineering and supported by our partners Interior Health and facilities management company Black & McDonald. This study verified that significant energy savings were available and specified how best to achieve them.
Implementation of these required the re-programming of the original system to be synchronised with the new operating hours and installation of occupancy sensors to allow for on-demand HVAC usage for outside of scheduled periods. We worked with our partners to cost this up and then arranged the funding for the project, which was successfully delivered on 18 May 2024.
The scheme means that the hospital saves an estimated 31 tonnes of CO2 per year and CAD$19,000. Additionally, the wear and tear on the HVAC equipment is also reduced, contributing to equipment reliability and reduced lifecycle expenditure over time.
