Effect of Energy Efficiency and Future Weather Scenarios on Energy Consumption of Hospital Building

Abstract

The building sector in Pakistan is responsible for a substantial 30-50% of the nation's overall energy usage, and this percentage is projected to increase even more as because of the negative impacts of climate change. In the case of hospital facilities, ensuring suitable indoor temperatures for patients requires significant energy consumption in ventilation, cooling, heating, and plug loads. To study the effects of various climate zones on the Typical Meteorological Year, as well as future scenarios for the years 2050 and 2080, weather files were created using Meteonorm software. These files were generated for three specific climate zones: humid subtropical climate (Islamabad), which corresponds to the actual location of the hospital building; hot desert climate (Karachi); and cold semi-arid climate (Skardu). The generation of these weather files was based on the IPCC 5th assessment report. A threedimensional model of the building was created using DesignBuilder. Different input parameters were assigned to establish a base case model. Subsequently, various passive measures were installed and compared to the base case model to determine their energy savings. According to the TMY data, the yearly energy consumption in a humid subtropical climate was found to be 17.1% higher than that in a cold semi-arid climate, and 15.3% lower than that in a hot desert climate. The most significant annual energy savings in Islamabad and Karachi, amounting to 68,045.93 kWh and 83,551.18 kWh respectively, were achieved by increasing the cooling setpoint by 2 °C. In Skardu, the most substantial annual energy saving of 52,840.83 kWh was obtained by decreasing the heating setpoint by 2 °C. The model was validated by comparing the annual energy usage from electricity bills. The results revealed a variance of 3.75% annually and 9.36% monthly between the simulated model and the actual model. The energy use intensity (EUI) of the building was calculated to be 313.43 kWh/m2/year, which is significantly higher than the benchmark of hospital buildings in India which is 200 kWh/m2/year. This indicates that the building does not satisfy the minimal standards of the energy efficiency index.