Success Stories - Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center

Sustainability Roadmap for Health Care | Health Care Facilities

Energy To Care Get Involved Education Recognition

Overview of Case Study

To achieve maximum results, focus on the critical few and not the non-trivial many, says James Larson, sustainability officer of Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix.

What Larson means is that some parts of a hospital, such as a chiller system, consume such a large percentage of a hospital’s energy that maximizing the effectiveness of that system is a far better use of time and resources than focusing on less influential elements.

At his facility, one effort in that regard has been to convert the heating and domestic hot water from steam to condensing hot water boilers. The hot water boilers as a system operate at about 70 percent to 80 percent overall efficiency, compared to an estimated 10 to 20 percent efficiency for steam.