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New Ventilation System Could Reduce Energy for Ventilation in Hospitals by One-Third
Feb 26, 2009
Mazzetti & Associates completes first ‘displacement ventilation’ system for an acute care hospital in North America – saving energy and money.
Consulting and engineering firm Mazzetti & Associates announced today that they finished work on North America’s first ‘displacement ventilation’ system for a patient room in an acute care hospital. The system was installed in the Kaiser Permanente facility in Modesto, California, as a test to see whether displacement ventilation—which differs from conventional ventilation in placing air outlets low on side walls, rather than on the ceiling—could offer energy savings while maintaining comfort and infection control.
“Displacement ventilation systems are used in many other types of buildings, but they haven’t been used in hospitals due to concern about patient safety and comfort,” said Arash Guity, Chief Climate Change Engineer at Mazzetti. “We expect to start seeing this system to be used in more hospitals across the country. There is great potential with displacement ventilation to provide safety and thermal comfort while delivering significant energy savings.”
Mazzetti has partnered with design and consulting firm Stantec on the pilot project. Initial research findings have indicated that displacement ventilation has the potential to reduce energy savings by up to 30 percent, while still maintaining infection control. The second phase of research results will be released in early 2009.
“Displacement ventilation systems can be designed and constructed at prices competitive with traditional ventilation systems,” said Guity. “In some cases, there are configurations of displacement ventilation systems that can actually be cheaper to install than conventional systems.”
As energy prices rise at the same time a hospital building boom is underway, Guity believes that sustainable building technologies, such as displacement ventilation, will be seen in hospitals.
“Because they operate 24-7 and are full of equipment, hospitals use tremendous amounts of energy, which really eats into the bottom line,” said Guity. “Technology like displacement ventilation has a significant potential for lowering operating costs in the future for an organization like Kaiser Permanente.”
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