Methodology developed for the energy-productive diagnosis and evaluation in health buildings

Abstract

The public health network in Argentina consists of a wide variety of buildings presenting a complex system of services and structures. In order to modulate and study the energy behaviour of each type of health facility, a database of Energy-Productive Building Modules (Módulos Edilicios Energéticos Productivos: MEEP) was built. This involved evaluating the interactions among physical spaces, building envelope, infrastructure, and equipment usage with the energy consumption, for each specialty service provided in the most common buildings present in the health service network. The MEEP database enables investigators to:(i)Obtain detailed information on each facility.(ii)Identify variables critical to an energy consumption perspective.(iii)Detect areas of over consumption and/or inadequate infrastructure.(iv)Gather essential reference material for the design of health facilities and other similar sectors. The information of each MEEP can be summarized in typological charts