Energy use at the Western Isles Hospital of the National Health System by Using SketchUp

Energy footprint is an important concern for the NHS Western Isles Trust. The NHS Western Isles Hospital, the organization's flagship, has recently become very aware of the amount of energy it consumes. The building owners invited Green-space-Live to conduct an energy analysis and provide alternatives to mitigate these problems.

Hospitals are among the most energy-hungry facilities when it comes to healthcare. Their first requirement is constant temperature controls and lights around the clock. You are adding the extra machinery, ventilation, sterilization, laundry, kitchen, and what not to that sum makes it pretty overwhelming.

A hospital that is located in such a wet and cold place adds to the bill since everything inside the hospital has to be kept dry and warm. A well-insulated and passive system must support the heating and dehumidifying of each room. The healthcare sector requires anything that can reduce energy consumption.

Basic Workflow

An energy analysis of the building was performed by first capturing the plan in SketchUp as a model, followed by an energy analysis using the proprietary extensions.

SketchUp enabled Green-space-Live to create their model, conduct an energy analysis, and conduct an energy assessment as a result of using the software. You can launch Google Earth to show the client the model with energy data. The dashboard also uses for the presentation to display the data. Team members collaborated using the workspace.

1. The first step was to build a building model, as mentioned above. The project required the scanning of not only CAD files but also drawings and blueprints. A basic 3D model was created in SketchUp. Elevations of floor plans needed to modify for the building heights, and rooms need to reconstruct in 3D over 2D. Simple building elements like walls, roofs, & much more are all for modeler plug-ins.

2. SketchUp Materials Palette is custom-made by the modeller tool, and the project team used these materials on surfaces to define energy data. Specific energy statistics can specify a specific zone or space using the manual space tool.

3. You are assessing the complete building model that is ready for analysis. This model is good because it makes it easy to analyze various engines with its engine. As a result, existing heat & energy data determines that moment's situation.

4. They then had to focus on improving the system. In-house experts predicted fabric, insulation, and other technical data, which they used instead of the existing hospital's systems. Different renovations propose each time, resulting in various analyses. There were several studies carried out.

5. Google Earth, dashboards, and workspaces use to share the information with the client after the work completes.

Results

NHS Trust was able to realize something significant using the information gathered above. It was now apparent that some of the projected techniques could result in a 50% reduction in energy consumption overall. In addition, those emissions would reduce by 80%.

About Green-space-Live

This spin-off of Green-space-Live Research is based on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, an area known for its low-carbon footprint construction and renewable energy research.

The Lewis Castle College-based firm was established in 2008 to design buildings using SketchUp. They use many plug-in they have developed to analyze and suggest improvements to building energy efficiency and other environmental concerns.

Wrapping it Up

These analytics were paramount in composing the changes they needed based on David Tierney of the NHS Western Isles Hospital's Energy Team. The executive vice president also reported building energy consumption and carbon emissions.

The results of the study will help them design future energy and carbon reduction plans.

To learn more, watch the following video tutorial.

Video Source: Designer Hacks