United States. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has set out to make its new $252 million facility (located in Monroeville, Pennsylvania) the most sustainable of its network of 30 hospitals. His design team delivered a building that is achieving an estimated $350,000 to $500,000 in annual energy savings.
"Our HVAC system design exceeds the requirements of ASHRAE 90,1-2004, and when combined with the reduction of electrical and lighting loads, the energy savings are about 18%, compared to the minimum construction requirements of a standard HVAC system," said Matthew J. Stevens, EIT, LEED AP, senior project manager at CJL Engineering, the engineering company of the project.
The 302,000-square-foot, 155-bed facility is LEED Silver Certified.
The installation of the air conditioning system has specific doors with air curtains for the conservation of energy. High-performance boilers, refrigerators and DX rooftop systems were the main contributors to the overall energy savings, however, if energy escapes through the doors, it decreases the sustainability effort, therefore, the installation has 11 air curtains for energy conservation by protecting all inlets from outside air infiltration.
In addition to energy savings, air curtains have electric heaters that are critical to indoor lobby air comfort. The heaters are efficiently controlled with a "delay" that continues to heat the located points to a lower air velocity until the door area reaches set point temperatures.
