Hospital Radiology D

Department Overhead Energy Estimation

Mohammad Amin Esmaeili , Ashkkan S. Jahromi, Janet Twomey, Bayram Yildirim, Michael
M Overcash,
Fernando Dom minquez, Nicholas Thomas and Ashlee Mcadam

attention through a number of iniitiatives sponsored by the

Abstract The interest in the energy managgement is found in
every sector of the economy. This is true of the commercial sector
which includes the healthcare industry. The ffocus of this study
is on estimating the overhead energy consump ption of healthcare
facilities where buildings are open and operrating 24 hours a
day/365 days a year. Overhead energy consum mption, heating, air
conditioning and lighting are the greatest coontributors to the
total energy consumption in commercial buildiings. According to
the Annual Energy Outlook 2011 Report, health hcare facilities are
ranked third, after malls and offices, in total energy consumed.
In this paper, we investigate and comparee three different
methods for estimating overhead energy consu umption of the CT
and x-ray rooms in the radiology departmen nt of a hospital: a
heuristic using annual energy consumption, therrmal analysis, and
simulation. The comparison of methods will prrovide information
and guidance on the selection of a method witth a given level of
accuracy and easy of application.
Department of Energy and hospital alliances.
a
Roth et al. (2002) reported thatt commercial building
heating, ventilating and air condittioning, (HVAC) systems
consumed a total of 4.5 quadrillionn BTUs (quads) of primary
energy in 1995 that represented th he largest primary energy
end-use in commercial buildings in n the U.S. They also found
that commercial building HVAC primary energy consumption
was relatively evenly distributed over
o heating, cooling, and
parasitic end-uses. The total HVAC C energy consumption was
about 30% of the primary energy consumption
c in 1995. The
next largest portion of the total en
nergy consumption was in
lighting, which represented 26% of the total primary energy
consumption in 1995 [3]. In this paper we limit our analysis
to HVAC.

Index TermsHVAC, healthcare, Hospital, O

Overhead Energy

I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, an increasing interestt in the energy
management can be found in every sector of the economy [1].
Annual Energy Outlook Report by Eneergy Information
Administration (2011) observes that the rate of energy
consumption in commercial sector has grow wn in recent years Healthccare
and is predicted to increase 27.7% over the aamount of energy
consumed in 2011 by 2035 (see Fig. 1) [2]. Efforts to define,
understand and describe energy consumptioon in commercial Fig. 1: Energy Consump
ption by Sector
buildings have gained more importance as the first step in (Annual Energy Outllook 2011)
energy management. As a sub-set of commerccial buildings and
the subject of this paper, healthcare facilities have received
Vacant
Other 1% Education
Warehouse
5% 14%
The support for this research comes from NSF CMM MI 0946342 and DOE: and Storage
8%
Sustainable Wind Energy and Sustainable Energy Solutioons. Service Food Sales
Janet M. Twomey is with Wichita State Universityy, Wichita, KS 67260 5% 4%
USA (e-mail: janet.twomey@wichita.edu) Correspondingg author
Religious
Mohammad Amin Esmaeili is with Wichita State Unniversity, Wichita, KS Worship
67260 USA (Phone: 316-978-5905; e-mail: mxesmaeili@ @wichita.edu) Food Service
3%
7%
Ashkan Sahraie Jahromi is with Wichita State Uniiversity, Wichita, KS
67260 USA (e-mail: ashkan.sahraiejahromi@wichita.eduu). Public
Michael R. Overcash is with Wichita State Universityy, Wichita, KS 67260 Assembly
USA (e-mail: michael.overcash@wichita.edu) 6% Health
Bayram Yildirim is with Wichita State University,, Wichita, KS 67260 Care
USA (e-mail: bayram.yildirim@wichita.edu) Office 10%
Fernando Valenzuela is with Wichita State Universityy, Wichita, KS 67260 20%
Retail (Other Lodging
USA (e-mail: fxvalenzueladominguez@wichita.edu) 9%
Than Mall)
Tyson J. Elsken is with Robert J. Dole Veterans Administration (VA)
6%
Hospital, Wichita, KS, 67218 USA (e-mail: Tyson.elskenn@va.gov)
Nicholas O. Thomas is with Wichita State Universityy, Wichita, KS 67260 Fig. 2: Commercial Sector Energy Consumed
C Breakdown by
USA (e-mail: nothomas@wichita.edu)
Ashlee N. Mcadam is with Wichita State Universityy, Wichita, KS 67260
Business of (Annual Energ
gy Outlook 2011)
USA (e-mail: anmcadam@wichita.edu)
 Overhead energy consumption, heating, air conditioning
and lighting are the greatest contributors to the total energy
consumption in commercial buildings, and may vary
significantly depending on the nature of the business. In
addition, the fluctuation of occupants during the day and
internal installed systems in the building can also cause
variation in energy consumption of HVAC systems [4].
The focus of this study is to estimate hospital facilities
overhead energy consumption where buildings are open and
operating 24 hours a day/365 days a year. According to the
Annual Energy Outlook 2011 Report [2], healthcare facilities
are ranked third, after malls and offices, in total energy
consumed (Fig. 2).
In this paper, we investigate and compare three different
methods for estimating overhead energy consumption of the
CT and x-ray rooms in the radiology department of a hospital:
a heuristic using annual energy consumption, thermal analysis,
and simulation. The comparison of methods will provide
information and guidance on the selection of a method with a
given level of accuracy and ease of application. The
estimation of overhead energy in healthcare is also important
to the new effort by the authors in creating life cycle
information for individual healthcare services
(http://webs.wichita.edu/?u=SUSTAINABILITY&p=/NSF_E
AGER) [5].
The setting for the study is the Robert J. Dole Veterans
Administration (VA) Hospital, a general medical care and
surgical hospital, located in Wichita, Kansas. This facility has
2 intensity is to capture information from the VAs monthly
a floor space of 466,000 ft . The hospital has been in operation
since 1935. The total number of full-time employee
equivalents (FTE) in fiscal year (FY) 2008 was 823, including
44 FTE physicians and 259 nurses. The medical center treated
27,875 individuals and delivered service for 9,203 inpatient
days in the hospital and 13,426 inpatient days in the
Community Living Center (CLC) resulting in an average daily
census 62 patients. The facility also provided service to
515,296 outpatient visits in FY 2008 [6]. Hospital
administration reports that these hospital statistics have not
deviated significantly for the time period studied.
II. BACKGROUND
One of the most comprehensive reports on energy
consumption of commercial building HVAC systems was
published in three volumes by U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) in 2001 [7]. This report provides energy consumption
estimation for heating and cooling systems based on
information provided by two other published reports. The
1995 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey
(CBECS95) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory data
on models for cooling and heating loads are the major
references of the DOE report. In the first volume chillers,
refrigerant compressors, and heating systems were discussed
while the thermal distribution, auxiliary equipment, and
ventilation systems were reported in the second volume. The
third volume focused on an assessment of energy savings
options, identification of barriers to implementation and
development of programmatic options.
Also, Crosbie (2009) addressed IntUBE Intelligent Use
of Buildings Energy Information project in Europe which its
aim was defined as improvement of new and existing
buildings energy consumption. In her article, two approaches
were introduced for building energy profiling: the building
energy simulations, and operational phase energy profiling [8].
Many studies have assessed energy consumption
improvements beyond efficient heating and air conditioning in
healthcare systems. In these studies, Combined Heat and
Power (CHP) systems and hybrid plants [9] [10], autonomous
systems for electrical, heating and cooling [11], chillers and
heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems
[12], lighting systems [13] were proposed for reduction of
energy consumption in hospitals.
III. METHODS OF ESTIMATING OVERHEAD ENERGY
INTENSITY
As it was described, the setting for the study is the VA
hospital in Wichita, Kansas. Energy consumption information
was obtained from several sources including literature, power
meter readings, observational data, and VA resources. Energy
data was collected and analyzed to provide as our metric
heating and cooling energy intensity ( . / ) on a per
month basis.
VA energy consumption
A seemingly good and direct method for estimating energy
electric and gas bills averaged over several years. This
information is then compared to cooling and heating degree
days by month. To estimate electricity/gas consumed the
following procedure is used: First, the hospital; base load
electricity/gas consumption is estimated by averaging the
consumption over the time period where the cooling/heating
degree days are at a minimum. Hospitals and other healthcare
facilities require clean environments. This is partly achieved
by having HVAC removing the humidity and controlling room
pressure, which requires the heating and cooling to be running
continuously. The base load amount includes the part of
HVAC energy consumption to achieve the environmental
conditions in the hospital.
To calculate the energy consumption for cooling and
heating, base load is subtracted from the total for that month
from the electricity and gas bills. We assume that the
remaining electricity/gas consumption can be attributed to
cooling/heating. Fig. 3 depicts average energy consumed over
a six year period by the VA for cooling and cooling degree
days by month [14]. Fig. 4 does the same for heating. The
plots show months of zero cooling and heating consumed.
Using the data from Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 estimates of heating and
cooling energy intensity were plotted at Fig. 5 for years 2004
to 2009. From 2004 to 2009 cooling intensity fluctuates from
0.26 to 0.49 kW.hr/ft2, and heating from 0.80 to 1.17kWh/ft2.
The heating and cooling energy intensities for the hospital in
2009 are:
Heating 1.02 . /
Cooling 0.33 . /

Fig. 3: Average Electricity Consumption and Cooling Degree Days of
VA Hospital
Fig. 4: Average Gas Consumption and Heating Degree Days of
VA Hospital
Fig. 5: Average Heating and Cooling Energy Intensity of
VA Hospital from 2004 To 2009
Thermal analysis
The second approach to determine the HVAC intensity per
square foot is a thermal analysis of the room. The idea behind
this model is that the HVAC intensity can be determined
based on the thermal energy contained inside a volume and
then calculate the required energy to maintain the thermal
energy at a desired level. This model requires knowledge
about the thermal properties of the volume boundaries and
proper identification of all heat sources inside the volume.
The volume of interest in this case is the VAs CT room.
This room has a dedicated air conditioning module which
removes the heat generated by the room heat sources and heat
entering through the room boundaries to maintain a constant
temperature. Room heat sources are the equipment inside the
room, light bulbs, and/or humans. No heating is supplied and
the air conditioner runs 24/7. In this analysis heat conduction
through walls is assumed to be negligible since the CT room is
inside the hospital. Convection through doors is also assumed
to be zero. Lighting energy intensity is calculated from the
number of light bulbs and power ratings.
The calculations to estimate CT room energy intensity are
performed here. There is no heating, only cooling because the
CT machine is a heating source which needs to be cooled
down constantly and in fact this is the reason why the CT unit
has an independent cooling system. The cooling energy
intensity is calculated upon the amount of heat dissipated from
the area. Total heat generation on a monthly basis is the sum
of all of heat sources:
In calculating the heat generated from the CT machine, it is
assumed that 99% of the input power to the machine is
transformed to heat. The
180 21.5 8 2
2344.45 0.99 280.32 99.82
1000
2763.06
where the human body heat generation rate was assumed
about 180 W and it was also assumed that in average two
technicians work in the CT area. The area of CT room
is 508 ft , therefore energy intensity is estimated as:
5.44
.
Simulation tools
Software and simulation tools for evaluating and forecasting
buildings energy consumption have a forty-year history.
DOE-2, ECOTECT, Energy-10, EnergyPlus, eQUEST,
HEED, TRACE 700, and SUNREL are examples of the
simulation packages in use today [15] [16]. However, one of
the major drawbacks of such packages is the variation in
estimated energy consumption due to deviation in external
climate zones, occupants fluctuations, and installed internal
loads [4]. Among all of the above building energy simulation
tools, eQUEST has recently risen in popularity because of its
building creation wizard which combines a graphical user
interface with DOE 2.2 and easy step by step procedure for
creating a building scheme. The building scheme is based on
a wide variety of building elements such as, walls, windows,
glasses, plug loads, ventilation, fans, pumps, chillers, boilers
and so forth [16].
There are opinions on the suitability of eQUEST and other
simulation packages for building energy modeling in the
HVAC analysis literature. One calls into question the accuracy
of simulation as a useful technique. Others accept the
limitations of modeling. These two sides are documented in
articles by Zhus and Fumos [17] [18]. Other limitations cited
are the difficulties and time it takes to provide a large number
of inputs to the software.
In this study the eQUEST software package was applied to
estimate energy intensity of the CT room and x-ray room in
two ways. The first method estimates the energy intensity for
the entire VA building and determines the CT and x-ray
rooms energy intensity based on that estimate. The second
method uses eQUEST to directly estimate each rooms heating
and cooling energy intensity assuming that it is a high
temperature insulated area. eQUEST building simulation
requires 25 input screens with approximately 300 input fields.
Default values are given for all essential fields (e.g. building
area) when the data is not available and non-essential fields
can be left blank (e.g. roof skylights). The accuracy of the
simulation greatly depends on the accuracy of the values of
300 input fields. For this application the majority of the
information required for the simulation was obtained by
consulting with VA maintenance and other personnel. Fig. 6
and Fig. 7 show the eQUEST simulation results for cooling
and heating energy consumption per month.
Fig. 6: eQUEST Results Showing Electricity Consumption for VA
Hospital by Month
Fig. 7. eQUEST Results Showing Gas Consumption for VA Hospital
The first method to calculate the energy intensity for the CT
and x-ray room units is calculating the energy intensity of the
entire building. However, this approximation is not very
accurate as it simply calculates the average intensity over the
whole building area without taking into consideration areas
where the intensity can be higher such as the CT and x-ray
rooms. The heating and cooling intensities using entire
hospital simulation are:
Heating 1.39 kW.hr/Month.ft2
Cooling 0.93 kW.hr/Month.ft2
The second method simulates each room as an outpatient
healthcare facility while taking into account the real
temperature boundary conditions of the rooms. It is assumed
that highest heat loss will be through the windows, while the
loss through floor, doors, interior walls and ceilings are
minimal. High insulation was used on roof and floor. The
doors were modeled as air lock entry doors to decrease heat
transfer since the doors exit to interior halls. A heat source in
the CT room is the CT machine which was simulated as
heating equipment with a set point of 70F.
The results of the simulation are shown in Fig. 8, Fig. 9
and Fig. 10 where energy consumption in kWh is plotted by
month. The fluctuations of energy consumption are due to
differences in eQUESTs heating and cooling degree days.
Note that CT room does not require heating, only cooling. The
cooling intensity simulated for the CT room is:
Cooling 12.26 kW.hr/month.ft2
Fig. 8. eQUEST Results for Cooling Energy Consumption per Month
for CT-Room
Fig. 9. eQUEST Results for Cooling Energy Consumption per
Month for X-Ray Room
 traffic areas, and also have heat generating equipment such as
computers, and imaging devices.
In Table II, thermal analysis provide cooling intensity
based on the assumption of keeping the temperature in that
room constant by removing the heat generated from different
heat sources. The resulting intensity is much higher than the
one estimated for the entire building and also the intensity
calculated using eQUEST simulation for the x-ray room. Note
that CT machines consume more energy than x-ray machines.
In the CT room, the thermal analysis method estimate for
cooling intensity is lower than the eQUEST simulation for the
Fig. 10. eQUEST Results for Heating Energy Consumption per room.
Month for X-Ray Room
TABLE II
The cooling and heating intensities based on the x-ray METHOD COMPARISON FOR CT ROOM
room simulations are: Heating Cooling
Method
kW.hr/ft2 kW.hr/ft2
Heating 0.67 kW.hr/Month.ft2
Cooling 1.62 kW.hr/Month.ft2 Ave Monthly Bills 1.02 0.33
Thermal Analysis No Heating 5.44

IV. RESULTS eQUEST entire building method 1.39 0.93

The summary of four methods to estimate overhead energy eQUEST room method No Heating 12.26
consumption in units of heating and cooling energy intensity
is provided in Tables I and II for the x-ray and CT rooms, V. CONCLUSION
respectively. The estimated heating and cooling intensities by
use of monthly bills method is relatively lower than obtained Three methods, thermal analysis, simulation tools, and
intensities using thermal analysis or simulation, since in annual energy consumption (bill-averaging), were used to
monthly bill analysis, the energy consumption were calculated estimate overhead energy (heating and air conditioning) of
by removing the base load. These results indicate that using two rooms in a healthcare facility. For this application the
monthly energy consumption, which is based on cooling and simulation tool required a large number of assumptions about
heating days data, underestimates the overhead energy the data (300 inputs) to model the heating and cooling energy
consumption, although this method is extensively used in consumption, which was not very practical to model two
industry to determine heating/cooling energy consumption. rooms in a larger facility individually. The thermal analysis
Note that when thermal analysis or eQUEST room simulation method is believed to provide the most accurate estimate and
methods are utilized, it is assumed that no heating is needed in easiest to apply, but is applicable if the system under study has
the CT room, since the heat generated by CT machine has to no significant amount of energy loss through the system
be removed using an air-conditioning unit specific to that boundaries. The thermal analysis model is significantly
room during all seasons. simpler than the eQUEST simulation model, since it involves
fewer variables. Finally, an estimate of overhead energy
TABLE I intensity per month based on monthly energy bills is the most
METHOD COMPARISON FOR X-RAY ROOM efficient method in terms of the time required to provide some
Heating Cooling results to analyze. However, in this case, there is no way on
Method how one should include the heating and cooling energy
kW.hr/ft2 kW.hr/ft2
consumption that appears in the base load in analysis.
Monthly Bills 1.02 0.33
The challenge is on how one can estimate the energy
Thermal Analysis N/A N/A
consumption in a particular area of a building with certain
eQUEST for entire building 1.39 0.93 environmental/climate requirements given energy consuming
systems such as central HVAC units which serve the whole
eQUEST for room 0.67 1.62
building.

Note that the methods that utilize the entire building data
to determine overhead energy consumption provide different
results compared to the single rooms method simulation. For
example, in Table I, the room analysis method indicates that
the heating intensity of the x-ray room is lower than the
heating intensity of other areas in the hospital, whereas the
cooling intensity is higher. Both x-ray and CT rooms are high
REFERENCES
[1] L. G. Swan and V. I. Ugursal, Modeling of end-use energy
consumption in the residential sector: A review of modeling
techniques in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2008.
[2] U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy
Outlook 2011 Early Release Overview, Washington, DC , 2011.
[3] K. W. Roth, D. Westphalen and J. Dieckmann, Energy [18] N. Fumo, P. Mago, and R. Luck, "Methodology to estimate
Consumption Characteristics of Commercial Building HVAC building energy consumption using EnergyPlus Benchmark
Systems, in Energy Savings Potential, vol 3. 2002. Models," in Energy and Buildings, vol. 42, pp. 2331-2337, 2006.
[4] A. H. Neto and F. V. A. S. Fiorelli, "Comparison between
detailed model simulation and artificial neural network for
forecasting building energy consumption," in Energy and
Buildings, vol. 40, pp. 2169-2176, 2008.
[5] J. Twomey, B.Yildirim and M. Overcash, Sustainability
Research in College of Engineering. [Online], Wichita State
University, 2010.
http://webs.wichita.edu/?u=SUSTAINABILITY&p=/NSF_EAGE
R.
[6] J. D. DAIGH, Combined Assessment Program Review of the
Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center, Wichita, Kansas, Office of
Inspector General, Office of Healthcare Inspections, Department
of Veterans Affairs, Washington, 2009.
[7] U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Consumption
Characteristic of Commercial Building HVAC System, Office of
Building Equipment, Office of Building Technology State and
Community Programs, 2001.
[8] T. Crosbie, N. Dawood, and J. Dean, "Energy profiling in the
life-cycle assessment of buildings", in Management of
Environmental Quality: An International Journal, vol. 21, pp. 20-
31, 2010.
[9] A. S. Szklo, J. B. Soares, and M. T. Tolmasquim, "Energy
consumption indicators and CHP technical potential in the
Brazilian hospital sector," in Energy Conversion and
Management, vol. 45, pp. 2075-2091, 2004.
[10] G. Bizzarri and G. L. Morini, New technologies for an
effective energy retrofit of hospitals, in Applied Thermal
Engineering, vol. 26, pp. 161-169, 2006.
[11] S. Okamoto,Energy Consumption and Technical Potential of
Energy Saving in a Hospital, in ASME Conference Proceedings,
pp. 691-697, 2008. DOI:10.1115/ES2008-54017
[12] G. Bizzarri, Energy requirements and potential energy savings
in Italian hospital buildings, in The Sustainable City IV: Urban
Regeneration and Sustainability, p. 419, 2006.
[13] A. H. W. Lee, "Verification of electrical energy savings for
lighting retrofits using short and long-term monitoring," in
Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 41, pp. 1999-2008,
2000.
[14] NOAA Satellite and Information Service, National Climatic
Data Center, Degree Date Statistics [Online]
http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/documentlibrary/hcs/hcs.html.
[15] M. Trka and J. L. M. Hensen, "Overview of HVAC system
simulation," in Automation in Construction, vol. 19, pp. 93-99,
2010.
[16] D. B. Crawley, J. W. Hand, M. Kummert, and B. T. Griffith,
"Contrasting the capabilities of building energy performance
simulation programs," in Building and Environment, vol. 43, pp.
661-673, 2008.
[17] Y. Zhu, "Applying computer-based simulation to energy
auditing: A case study," in Energy and Buildings, vol. 38, pp.
421-428, 2006.