Living Laboratories in Health Care and Schools

- establishing baselines, protocols and

operation guidelines

[Hardikkumar Alpeshbhai Panchal]

[EN50]

ENN590 – Project
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Engineering (Coursework)

Science and Engineering Faculty

Queensland University of Technology
[12/04/19]
 Keywords

Living Lab, Open innovation, Hospitals, Healthcare, Renewable Energy, Sustainable development, Schools,
Education

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 ENN 590: Project 1

Sr.no Topic Page

No.
1 Introduction 4
2 Literature Review 6
2.1 Living lab in Hospitals and schools. 6
2.2 Factor that influence energy consumption in hospitals. 6
2.3 HVAC system in hospital. 7
3 Methodology 9
3.1 Literature review 9
3.2 Data Collection 9
3.3 Data analysis and result 9
4 Timeline 9
5 References 10

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 1. Introduction

With the global energy utilization doubling by 2030, with 80% of remaining fossil fuel energy,
buildings ( domestic and commercial) consumes more than 40% of the total energy
consumption, it is appropriate to make a “intelligent” contribution to reducing consumption,
to boost renewable energy production and to become a main node related to energy and
transformation. Due to high consumption in energy, buildings such as hospitals, schools are
the primary areas that needs sustainable transformations. Therefore, Living lab infrastructure
is introduced to enhance the necessary lifestyle modifications. Living lab can be described as
“a user-centered innovation environment based on daily practice and research, with an
approach that facilitates the impact of users in open-ended innovation processes engaging all
relevant partners in real life contexts ”. The purpose of living lab is to develop an open,
functional environment and replicable model to test and develop technology. It provides
ways of analyzing practices in everyday use involving technical artifacts and services. This is
important since experienced by potentially sustainable product service innovations in main
areas shows that often, either in terms of low user acceptance or adverse rebound effects,
these developments do not work in intended ways.

Fig: 1 Primary components of living lab

The demand of energy and joint emissions in hospitals and healthcare facilities are excessive.
They operate on a day to day basis and are subjected to extra energy requirements for the
clean air and disease control, heating ventilation and cooling system, imaging equipment and
waste management. In the last few years, demand for air conditioning has steadily risen not
just because of increased concerns about indoor environment quality and comfort in the
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constructed environment, but also due to climate change resulting in increasing ambient
temperatures. Furthermore, the electricity demand in hospitals is defined by the needs of
high quality and guaranteed supplies.

Fig: 2 Average electrical and thermal energy consumption per unit floor area in hospitals of
various develop countries.

Furthermore, hospitals are amongst the least energy efficient buildings in most developed
countries, with a high proportion of ageing building stocks. As per study from Energy Staew
programme, energy intake per unit floor area in hospitals is much higher than in many other
building types.

Research objective:
The study has following objectives:
• To increase the role of renewable energy in Australia by establishing Living lab in
Healthcare(Hospital and Aged Care) and education(school).
• To design the HVAC system for living lab by considering several design parameters of
hospital and schools.

Research problem
This research will look into the following factors
• How living lab can be beneficial to hospitals and schools.
• Design considerations of HVAC system for hospital and schools.

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Literature review.

2.1 Living lab in Hospitals and schools.

With a multiple challenge faced by the health sector such as ageing of population,
innovations in technology and efficient use of them can contribute to improve productivity
for organizations. It will also ensure better services and wellbeing of the patients. However,
only if training , research and service structures are integrated into a strengthened
development model, then only results can be achieved. As a response to this problem, living
lab environment were created. Many living lab projects for hospitals and schools has
represented as the primary healthcare developer platform by bringing together hospital staff,
researchers, students, teaching staff using expertise in innovation and development.

Among the list of benefits of living lab for schools, three of them are listed below:
• Living lab for education can improve their professional skills, employability, student
retention rate and student satisfaction by practical based learning.
• Transfer of knowledge to internal or external partners for sustainable change.
• Strong relationships between academics and internal estates staff as well as external
partners.

2.2 Factor that influence energy consumption in hospitals.

The largest consumer of energy in the public sector is the healthcare and hospital sector.

Fig: 3 Showing distribution of energy in public sectors.

Source: Victoria government

Most hospitals are of large facilities which means they are large consumers of energy.
There are various factors that plays a key role for energy consumption in hospitals. They
are:

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 • 24*7 Operations: Areas such as ICU(Intensive care units), ward spaces and emergency
services usually operate round the clock, while other areas like operating theatres and
suite are kept on stand and used whenever needed.

• Use of energy intensive medical equipment: Healthcare relies more and ,ore on the
use of sophisticated energy consuming equipment. This equipment consists of
machines used for Magnetic resonance tomography(MRT), Magnetic Resonance
Imaging(MRI) and Computed Tomography(CT) scans.

• Increased Hospital activity: The demand for energy in hospitals is increasing because
medical technology and hospital services are being used more extensively for longer
hours resulting in more lighting , heating, cooling and ventilation.

• HVAC system: HVAC system in hospital is the major consumer of the energy in the
hospitals. It contributes around 30% percent of the total consumption of energy in
hospitals.

5 2

28 41

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18

HVAC Lighting Cooking Special equipment Office equipment Refrigeration

Fig:4 Energy distribution in hospital of Victoria.

As evident from the data, major energy saving opportunities lies in HVAC system.

2.3 HVAC system in hospital.

The primary need of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning in Hospital

is to support the medical function and guarantee occupant comfort, health and safety. The
HVAC system not only ensures minimum requirements of comfort but is a key tool for
infection control, removal of harmful smells, diluting contaminants and development of
special conditions conducive to medical procedures ad patient healing. The HVAC design shall
be considered appropriate for maintainability, economics and efficiency of the system as well
as adaptability to future modifications or expansion of facilities.

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2.3.1 Design consideration for HVAC system:

• Weather data: Weather data shall be considered for determining correct HVAC
system for the use. For that, weather data such as temperature should be obtained
from a reliable source.

• Interior design Conditions: Interior design conditions is also of utmost importance and
should be considered while selection of HVAC system. It would be also helpful for
building stimulation of building.

• Space Ventilation: Minimum total and outside air change shall be indicated and
computed on a per occupant basis. To meet air conditioning or makeup air
requirements, higher air.

• Dry and Wet bulb temperature: The HVAC cooling design shall be considered using
0.4% Dry bulb and winter heating design shall be considered using 99.6% dry bulb.

• Sensitive Spaces: Some areas like MRI computer rooms, Radiology room, Automated
Data Processing rooms are more sensitive area which are more critical and requires
special attention while designing HVAC system.

• Clear air: The HVAC system should be designed for providing cleaner air to breathe.
For that various new technology-based filters can be used.

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3. Methodology

Stage 1: Literature Review

This step involves the study regarding the living lab and how it is useful to go for the project.
This step also includes some information retrieval from literature review. Objectives and
research aim can become more clearer by doing proper literature review.

Stage 2: Data collection

Gathering information on the energy consumption by public sectors and then focusing on
Schools and hospitals. Other data is also to be collected such as climate detail, hospital design
data, and many more.

Stage 3: Data analysis and key results

Once the data is collected, data analysis will be done related to HVAC design criteria and based
on TRNSYS stimulation proper HVAC modeling will be carried out.

4. Timeline

Below is the timeline for the timeframe of the research.

10 Mar
03 Mar 12 April 31 may

Project Group Project Literature Project Stimulation Final project

selection formation details review proposal model report

10 Mar 07 April 15 may

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 5. REFERENCES

Abdolrasoul Habibipour. Living Lab Research: A State-of-the-Art Review and Steps towards a Research Agenda.
Available at: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1239574/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Ahmed Teke, Oguzhan Timur. Assessing the energy efficiency improvement potentials of HVAC systems
considering economic and environmental aspects at the hospitals. Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260429309_Assessing_the_energy_efficiency_improvement_potentials
_of_HVAC_systems_considering_economic_and_environmental_aspects_at_the_hospitals

Angela Ruriko Sakamoto. LIVING LAB: a proposal for a collaborative network for open innovation between
University and High School. Available at:
https://www.pomsmeetings.org/ConfProceedings/051/FullPapers/Final%20Full%20length%20Papers/051-
0337.pdf

Arto Holopainen. Living Lab services promoting health in the community through participation. Available at:
https://journal.fi/finjehew/article/view/74405/38217

James Evans, Ross Jones, Andrew Karvonen, Lucy Millard, Jana Wendler. Living labs and
coproduction: university campuses as platforms for sustainability science. Available
at:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877343515000573/pdfft?md
5=6046b1abb4917c1654182e93abad83bd&pid=1-s2.0-S1877343515000573-main.pdf

Jori Reijula, Rauno holopainen, Erkki Kahkonen, Kari Reijula, Iris Tommelein. Intelligent HVAC systems in
hospitals. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17508975.2013.778192

Nick Guldemong, Marina van Geenhuizen. ‘Livings Labs’ for New Health Concepts and Medical Technology in
Cluster Development. Available at: https://3ftfah3bhjub3knerv1hneul-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2018/07/guldemond-and-van-geenhuizen.pdf

Robert Picard, Norbert Noury. The development of the Living Lab approach in the Health and Autonomy sector.
Available at: https://www.forumllsa.org/bundles/app/pdf/Picard_Noury.pdf

https://www.eia.gov/consumption/commercial/reports/2012/energyusage/

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