July 13, 2017

Heather Burpee Presents NZE Healthcare Building Research at Annual ASHRAE Conference

Heather Burpee, UW IDL Education and Outreach Director, recently traveled to Long Beach, CA to share healthcare building research at ASHRAE’s 2017 annual conference. Burpee participated as a panelist in Seminar 47: Zero Energy Healthcare Buildings: Current Status and Future Efforts, presenting “Toward Net-Zero Energy (NZE) Hospitals in North America.”

Recognizing hospitals in North America as significant source of energy consumption, Burpee’s presentation focused on strategies for existing and new hospitals to meet NZE goals, taking into account the implications unique to the healthcare context. Burpee highlighted techniques for energy reduction, emphasizing the need to reduce loads, provide efficiencies in distribution, and apply lower-energy generation strategies. To demonstrate effective NZE implementation in practice, Burpee provided case studies on successful low energy healthcare buildings, highlighting project data and lessons learnt that can underpin a roadmap for future healthcare building design.

Burpee’s presentation drew upon her work on the national, IDL-led Targeting 100! Study – which focused on designing hospitals to reduce energy use by 60% – as well as her ongoing technical consulting on large healthcare building projects.