A quantitative analysis of final energy consumption in hospitals in Spain

The accurate identification of the final energy consumption in hospitals is a key task to determine potential savings and therefore to set appropriate design criteria. However, correlations between consumption and functional indicators for Spanish hospitals have not been yet accounted for in detail. A total of 80 Eco-Management and Audit Schemes (EMAS) from 20 hospitals were analysed in the period 2005-2014 in order to seek correlations between energy consumption and climate conditions, gross domestic product (GDP), built surface area, number of available beds and number of staff. The results set the average annual energy consumption in a Spanish hospital for standard operating conditions as 0.27 MWh/m(2), 9.99 MWh/worker and 34.61 MWh/bed (standard deviations 0.07 MWh/m(2), 3.96 MWh/worker and 12.49 MWh/bed, respectively). The geographic location was seen to show a direct influence on those values, as opposed to the specific type of management (TM), the number of available beds, the GDP or the particular climate conditions.