In Italy, preliminary analysis of the state of art of hospital buildings have highlight the problem; excessive and non-efficient energy consumption due to bad building maintenance and obsolete equipmenHospitals represent a typology very significant in terms of energy consumption. The total energy cost for hospital services represent 10% of total cost. The actual design approach is lacking in the objectives directed towards preparation of the building professionals, either for the low sensibility and interest of the Public Administrations, either for the national market lacking in innovative technological products. Moreover it is important to note that energy consumption data is a rare available information. This is symptomatic of the actually lacking in the objectives geared toward the amelioration of the environmental quality and the improvement of energy saving in these buildings. The proposal aims to contribute to an important decrease of energy consumption and peak electricity demand of the hospital, as well as to obtain a considerable improvement of comfort and indoor conditions, through the application of energy efficiency measures. In parallel, it aims to disseminate effective information for designers, hospitals managers and technical staff in order to help them to identify the opportunities of efficiency measures for hospital environment. The construction of this new hospital incorporates energy efficient measures, which are not only innovative for the actual state of art but also highly replicable in hospitals in Italy. The innovation of this project is the introduction of some specific innovative energy saving techniques for the actual standard in order to set a new energy, environmental and health standard for hospital buildings. In this framework, the following measures have been incorporated:

• Use of roof garden
• Use of a buffer space on the north facade

• Sun space in the south facade
• Use of solar drafts
• Use of skylights for even daylight distribution

• Use of a Daylight Compensation System

• Use of BMS
• Splitting of refrigeration unit
• Use of condensing boilers
• Use of Refrigeration unit with heat pomp
• Use of radiant heating

• PV system integrated in the sun space
• Improvement of micro-climate through the appropriate use of plantation, green surfaces in order to decrease the temperature of the surrounding the building and thus to reduce the building’s cooling requirements

• application and test of new and innovative energy saving technologies in order to improve the energy performance and the indoor environment of hospital buildings
• complete analysis with fully documented monitoring of the energy, environmental and economic benefits and the production of complete data useful through appropriate dissemination activities
• realisation of total energy savings of over 40% and reduction of CO2 emissions of over 35%
• setting a new standard for energy consumption and CO2 emissions in hospitals, while fully maintaining comfort conditions for patient, visitors and staff.
• demonstration, with a pilot project that energy efficient and sustainable hospital building can fully meet all the architectural, functional, comfort, control and safety features through the application of innovative and intelligent design and integrated design. This demonstration effect could contribute to a better acceptance of innovative and renewable technologies in public buildings

The energy requirements of the new hospital have been evaluated through a preliminary performed simulation. The aim of these calculations was to evaluate the impact that the implementation of various energy saving strategies will have on the energy and thermal performance of the studied building. In this case, as the building is a new construction, the energy requirements are calculated both for a conventional design and for a design implementing the energy saving in order to estimate the percentage of decrease of total energy savings. The detail- ed results of this study can be found in the following table. Preliminary energy simulations were performed using well-validated energy tools as Summer for cooling and Trnsys. The annual energy demand for heating (and cooling) shows a reduction of 62% and the electricity gives a reduction of 80% if the new hospital is compared with a standard hospital. Copyright 2005 All rights reserved. Supported by the European Commission.