The government announced the "Hong Kong Climate Action Blueprint 2050" in October this year, proposing four carbon reduction strategies: net-zero power generation, energy-saving green buildings, green transportation and national waste reduction. Among them, reducing the overall electricity consumption of buildings is also an important carbon reduction direction. one.
The hospital building that the author often comes into contact with is one of the buildings that consumes a lot of electricity because it needs to operate 24 hours a day.
In order to save electricity consumption in hospitals, the authorities introduced environmental protection concepts into hospitals as early as 2000, when the concept of carbon reduction was not yet popularized in the society. The specialized energy-saving investment plan lays the foundation for the company to increase the benefits of environmental protection and energy-saving measures in the future.
Written by: Yuan Bailiang, senior engineer and former president of the Institute of Engineers
In the early years, when the concept of environmental protection was not yet popular in Hong Kong, some hospitals advocated the concept of environmental protection.
The author remembers that in 2000, a hospital held an energy-saving competition, and employees proposed different energy-saving measures, and then synthesized the ten most effective ways to save electricity and energy in hospital buildings.
The author remembers that many employees enthusiastically put forward simple and practical suggestions. Some people suggested turning off some lights, some people suggested that clothes or items to be cleaned should be centrally processed and cleaned, and even suggested that employees should use the stairs more, cherish water, etc. In the end, the hospital Produced a booklet titled "Ten Items of Energy Saving" with relevant environmental protection tips for employees' reference.
Today, although these seem to be very common daily environmental protection behaviors, they may not help save a lot of energy, but at that time, the authorities were the first organization to raise employees' awareness of environmental protection and energy conservation, and the effect of publicity and education was huge.
Since then, the hospital has gradually started to use electric lights that are easier to use, such as reducing the number of bulbs or light tubes in some places with high luminosity in the hospital, and trying to increase indoor sunlight exposure through architectural design, thereby reducing the use of electric lights. The hospital completely replaced the T8 light pipe with the more energy-saving T5 light pipe. One hospital involved more than 10,000 light pipes. Although the replacement cost was not light, it successfully saved a lot of energy; also because the authorities took the lead in making a large number of replacements, it also made a disguised order. The price of energy-saving lighting fixtures has become cheaper, which will help to continue to attract other institutions to adopt them, and jointly create a new situation of energy saving.
The authorities have also made large-scale energy conservation in the form of specific innovations.
About 20 years ago, some hospitals referred to foreign advanced environmental protection and energy conservation practices, and invited private professional energy engineering companies to submit energy conservation investment plans.
For example, to reduce electricity and energy use by means of automation, to be closer to the needs of hospital air-conditioning, to adjust air-conditioning switches and to use energy-saving light pipes, etc., through the signing of a contract called Performance Contracting or "Energy Performance Guarantee Contract", Through performance contracting, the reduced electricity bills are divided according to the proportion of the contract arrangement agreement, which becomes the company's return on investment.
I believe this is the first example of the implementation of this innovative "Energy Performance Guarantee Contract" in Hong Kong that year, which has successfully implemented energy conservation and emission reduction in a more concrete and effective manner. Arrange work to protect the environment.
However, this method cannot be effective for a long time. If the hospital needs special or emergency services, some systems such as backup air conditioners need to be restarted, resulting in the failure to achieve the maximum power saving efficiency.
Since then, new hospitals have been built one after another, and their design has taken into account how to save electricity and energy.
How it actually works will be discussed later.
"01 Medical Clinic" cooperates with senior engineer Yuan Bailiang to launch a column "Yuantu With You" every Monday to share the big and small matters of engineering and medical care.
Yuan Bailiang has always been committed to promoting the professional development of the engineering field, and he has just stepped down as the president of the Institution of Engineers.
Decades of professional journey are really worth remembering, and I am convinced that later generations may be able to understand the key points of the engineering profession.
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