Dave Archer, M&E national sales manager, Mitsubishi Electric believes that by adopting low-carbon technologies the NHS will be able to reach its Net Zero goal.
The NHS supports one million patients every 36 hours, and its buildings offer vital services to the public. But they are ageing, and often operate on inefficient HVAC systems as a result. In fact, the organisation is currently responsible for 4% of the UK’s carbon emissions every year, meaning decarbonising the healthcare sector is critical to meeting current and future targets for net zero.
Progress is already being made, and since 2008 the NHS has already successfully achieved a 62% reduction in emissions. Now, more must be done to decarbonise our buildings – and choosing heating and cooling systems that are highly efficient is one way to achieve this.
Luckily there are already technologies available to do so – in the form of high temperature heat pumps. With many older NHS hospitals designed to run on steam boilers, this new low-carbon solution is the ideal way to move away from coal, gas and oil as a means of providing heating and hot water.
Heat pumps are highly energy efficient and are able to produce at least 3kW of heat energy for every 1kW of electrical energy used – meaning hospitals need to use far less energy to achieve the same results. To date, heat pumps have been widely regarded as an effective method for supplying low-temperature space heating, but in fact they are also able to supply high temperatures. This means they are ideal for healthcare applications, where sanitary hot water is needed during periods of peak demand.
The scale of change required in NHS hospitals and other buildings across the healthcare industry is significant. But by adopting heat pumps and other low-carbon technologies, it will be possible to ensure that the UK’s biggest healthcare provider hits the net-zero goal.
https://les.mitsubishielectric.co.uk/end-users/application-by-sector/health
