Energy to Care

PA Society for Health Facility Engineering

In 2016, several members of the Pennsylvania Society for Health Facility Engineering (PSHFE) explored participating in the American Society of Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) Energy to Care Program.  ASHE developed the Energy to Care program to challenge the 4,000 hospitals across the U.S. to reduce energy use by 10% or more. The program’s guiding principle is that “Greater Efficiency Supports Patient Care. The program provides resources and recognition for participating hospitals. In addition, engagement in the program at the state level has become a requirement for elite chapter certification. Although a few PSHFE members were already participating in the Energy to Care program, PSHFE wanted to expand the number of members in the program. PSHFE members cited “time” and “expertise” as the 2 main barriers to engaging the program. PSHFE worked with Envinity in State College to help members to reduce barriers to getting enrolled in the Energy to Care program.  WPPSEF provided 50% cost share to defray the cost of establishing an energy use baseline for each of the participating hospitals.  The completed audits for seven PA hospitals identified a savings of 15.9M kWh/year and 17,780 MMBTU/ of electric and gas savings, respectively.  The PSHFE Energy to Care audits identified on average 15% energy savings at each of the participating hospitals.

Impact

Audits focused in on chilled water system improvements

Hospitals were benchmarked on ENERGY STAR national averages

Retro-commissioning opportunities identified

Large electric and gas savings identified