Griffith Hospital

Date: 2002
Client:  AGL

Griffith Hospital is a medium sized facility in western NSW.  The hospital is generally of an older style, with centralized services and buildings dating from the1940’s to the 1970’s.

In a regional centre like this, it is generally the age of the infrastructure that provides the greatest opportunities rather than the operational aspects - staff from regional areas are generally very good about switching off lights and not being consciously wasteful.  In the case of Griffith, we identified that the primary problem was the steam boiler system, which was old and had very high losses.  Decentralisation of this system into local hot water boilers was demonstrated to be attractive, supported by some HVAC controls improvements and lighting upgrades.  The total potential savings across the site were very substantial.

The project is an excellent demonstration of Exergy’s analytical abilities.  To estimate the savings from decentralization, Exergy had to build up an integrated end-use and boiler operation model based on the limited available gas data.  As we have these tools available in house, we were able to produce our initial estimate of the steam system losses literally over morning tea while still on the first day on site!

Above, Griffith hospital main block.  Buildings of this era are often ripe for energy efficiency improvements because their existing plant is reaching the end of its economic life.