Study Hospital

Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center Energy Use and Model Calibration Study

Legacy Health partnered with the University of Washington’s (UW) Integrated Design Lab and SOLARC Architecture & Engineering to monitor energy use patterns at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center in Vancouver, Washington. This project benefited from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding through the Department of Energy and The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.

Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center and the UW project team monitored energy use at the hospital over a one month period in the Winter of 2011. The in-depth data from this study will help inform how hospitals actually utilize energy, paving the path to energy use reductions in healthcare. Data at this level of detail is very uncommon, and the outcomes of this study are highly anticipated by leaders in high performance hospital design, construction, and operation.

The UW research team worked closely with Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center staff to gather this data, and relied on their experience and expertise to both collect information and to evaluate the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the hospital’s design and energy consumption.

Legacy Salmon Creek Annual Energy End Use Breakdown: EUI 215 kBtu/sf-yr

Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center Patient Room Lighting Study

As part of this energy monitoring study, patient room lighting use patterns were also investigated at a detailed level.

High quality lighting design in hospitals is vital for creating both functional and comfortable spaces for staff and patients. Hospitals use a disproportionate amount of energy, and lighting is one of the end-uses that can be targeted to help reduce the overall energy footprint of healthcare facilities. Little is known, however, about how electric lighting is actually used in hospitals; when are lights on/off, how does that relate with occupancy, how does daylight availability affect the use of electric lights?

The goal of this pilot project is to develop methods to measure lighting use patterns in hospital patient rooms to help create a clearer understanding of the relationships between lighting use, common lighting design practice and lighting standards. With this information, the team hopes to provide data that will generate discussion related to practical energy reducing measures for lighting.