Current Greening Health Care Applied Research Projects

LED Lighting Retrofits in Hospitals – Getting it Right the First Time

Conversion of hospital lighting from fluorescent and other older technologies to LED has been viable for a number of years, delivering electricity reductions of up to 40% or more. Recent surveys of Greening Health Care members indicate that around 30% of total building areas has so far been completed, with some hospitals being almost fully converted and others just beginning the work. A majority of hospitals responded that they intend to conduct large retrofit projects (greater than 25% of their floor area) within the next few years.

Experience to date has been mixed, with two commonly expressed concerns; Some areas are uncomfortably bright after the LED lighting is installed, and Actual electricity savings fall significantly below initial estimates.

This research project will develop and test a standard scope of work and specification for use by hospitals in procuring lighting retrofits which deliver consistent lighting quality at least life-cycle cost. The work will engage hospitals, procurement specialists, product and service providers and industry experts in reaching consensus decisions on audit scopes, savings potential, retrofit options, and procurement.

Achieving High Performance Building Systems in Healthcare Facilities

Since 2005, almost twenty new hospitals have opened across the province under Ontario’s P3 delivery model. Greening Health Care has been reporting on their actual energy and water performance since 2017 through its annual New Hospital Performance white papers.

Performance results to date have been mixed. Of the 18 new hospitals, 6 are at the top of the benchmark chart, having met or exceeded their Greening Health Care energy efficiency targets, another in the top quartile, and the remaining 11 have not yet achieved high performance.

The more recent of these P3 hospitals have extensive submetering systems tracking electricity and thermal energy use for most building systems. Data from these meters can enable system level benchmarking between them to highlight where the big differences are to be found between the top performers and the rest. This research project will engage with the operational hospitals and collect, analyze and benchmark structured submeter data, together with high level building system information, to help understand the differences.