Analysis of Performance of CCHP Systems for Large Hospitals

Hospitals are large public buildings that have a significant impact on the environment because they use large amounts of energy and water and produce large amounts of waste. For these reasons, hospitals are natural candidates for sustainable design. The design of heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) plants for large hospitals must aim to some top priority objectives: improve their energy efficiency, forecast the use of clean innovative technologies of self production of energy, reduce both the operating costs of HVAC plants and polluting impacts on environment, guarantee the continuity of energy supply from every case of critical states and black-out of electrical energy or natural gas. In the context of cooling/heating efficient energy, we illustrate the benefits obtained by means the use of a system of “Combined Cooling Heating and Power” for the San Marco Catania’s Hospital. This paper shows in what way is guaranteed the continuity of energy supply for any possible critical state, the economic gain through the auto-production of energy that reduces of about 1.000 M€ the operating cost of HVAC plants, the environmental benefits due to the reduction of about 25 Mtons of carbon dioxide equivalent.