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Case Study and Energy Performance Optimization for Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas
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Date
2009-11
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Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu)
Abstract
Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas (DCMCCT) is the first hospital in the world to achieve LEED Platinum certification. A major contributor to this certification is an on-site 4.3 Megawatt combined heating, cooling and power plant (CHP) owned and operated by Austin Energy that provides 100% of the hospital’s electricity, chilled water and steam requirements. The operation and efficiency of this plant is not addressed by this paper. The energy efficiency strategies employed for the design of the hospital included exhaust heat recovery, dedicated outside air units, BAS control strategies, lighting controls, and high performance glazing. Preconstruction energy modeling for the hospital was estimated at 17% better performance than an ASHRAE 90.1 compliant design. Energy consumption for the first three months of operation was 75% over the design estimates. Over the past eighteen months, the energy performance of the hospital has tracked within the 5% of the modeled performance while the cooling degree days have been 25% greater than average.
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Keywords
LEED Certification, Energy Performance Optimization, Medical Center Case Study