Energy Indexing for Different Type of Hospital Buildings in Malaysia

Abstract

Healthcare facilities are one of the major consumers of electricity, Building Energy Index (BEI) is an important tool that can assist healthcare facilities in monitoring and benchmarking their energy performance. There are many types of healthcare facilities, and a standardized form of BEI is not suitable to be used as it will result in a misleading interpretation of the energy performance. This article explains the study in developing an energy indexing where different hospital buildings in Malaysia can be benchmarked according to their specifications and needs. By monitoring and controlling the correct variables, energy indexing could be reduced by reducing the electrical energy cost through effective energy-saving measures. The aim of the study was achieved through the collection of 91 hospital data with pre-listed 33 potential variables, which were later reduced to 4 significant variables after evaluating minimum sample size, normalising data after considering parameters like R² (Coefficient of Determination), ???? ???????? (Coefficient of Variation - Root Mean Square Error), P-value, t-Stat, and multicollinearity using regression analysis. An energy indexing formula for different types of Malaysian hospital buildings was developed using a regression method to demonstrate the significant impact of independent variables on dependent electrical energy consumption. The energy indexing has been quantified for each category of hospitals and results obtained show Major Specialist Hospital has a mean of predicted energy indexing as high as 191, continued by General Hospital, which is 185.72, Minor Specialist Hospital with 173.24 and Non-Specialist Hospital with 147.81.