Análise dos equipamentos de aquecimento do HUSM com proposta de cenários, visando à eficiência energética

Abstract

Nowadays, it has been given increasing attention to the rational use of energy resources. In this sense, it is observed that governments have efforts to optimize the exploitation of the available sources. Generally, these efforts take place in the form of energy efficiency programs, aiming at various sectors of society, such as commercial, residential and industrial. In order to fill a gap in the energy efficiency research, under the energy point of view, this study seeks to analyze the heating equipment in a hospital environment, proposing alternative scenarios for energy efficiency. This is due to the fact that a hospital has services and laundry equipment, kitchens and sterilization, which can be targets of an energy efficiency program. A hospital also uses electric showers to meet the needs of patients and caregivers bath. With this demand, the efficiency becomes important to reduce the losses and energy costs, promoting a more rational use of energy. The issue observed in the energy audit hospital is related to an inappropriate use of two energy sources available: the power (provided by the local electric company) and the heat produced, by the hospital boiler and transmitted by steam. As reference for this study, it will be considered the University Hospital of Santa Maria (HUSM), a midsize institution. The use of steam as a source of heat is not fully exploited by the HUSM sub-systems, causing over-use of electricity services for heating. As a result, the electricity cost, according to the analysis done in this work, presented fines due to exceeding limits of the contracted demand, incident over the electricity management. The main objective of this work is to apply the energy efficiency concepts to the hospital heating equipment, optimizing its energy consumption and using. It were collected equipment loads curves during the heating periods of 24 hours of HUSM operation on workdays and weekends. It was projected a reduction on the wasted energy through these proposals, analyzed over the energy bills and gathered data, with reference to the year 2012. As an example, one of the proposed scenarios resulted in a reduction of R$ 13,752.96 kWh/year, enabling savings of up to R$ 35,106.67/year.