IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i4p932-d137676.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Quantitative Determination of Potable Cold Water Consumption in German Hospitals

Author

Listed:
  • Alfonso González González

    (Department of Mechanical, Energy, and Materials Engineering, University of Extremadura, 06800 Mérida (Badajoz), Spain)

  • Justo García-Sanz-Calcedo

    (Department of Graphical Expression, University of Extremadura, 06071 Badajoz, Spain)

  • David Rodríguez Salgado

    (Department of Mechanical, Energy, and Materials Engineering, University of Extremadura, 06071 Badajoz, Spain)

Abstract

A hospital’s water installations are critical for its function, but the environmental cost is high. This study quantifies the mean potable cold water consumption (PCWC) in 19 hospitals belonging to the German Public Health System. The hospital floor area ranges from 3000 to 151,000 m 2 and the number of beds from 45 to 1003 beds. To this end, 60 Eco-Management and Audit Scheme statements were analyzed corresponding to the period 2005–2015 in accordance with their geographic location, heating-degree-days per year, cold-degree-days per year, hospital category depending on the number of beds, floor area, and number of workers. It was found that PCWC is greater in hospitals located in areas with greater heating-degree-days per year. The potential mean annual savings estimated were 8,600,000 m 3 of water equivalent to 15,000,000 euros, 4000 MWh energy, and 30,000 tons of CO 2 emissions. It was concluded that, to determine the mean annual water consumption, it is preferable to use the number of beds as reference indicator, and the value of the consumption as reference indicator was proposed as 103 m 3 per bed per year.

Suggested Citation

  • Alfonso González González & Justo García-Sanz-Calcedo & David Rodríguez Salgado, 2018. "Quantitative Determination of Potable Cold Water Consumption in German Hospitals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-13, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:4:p:932-:d:137676
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/932/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/932/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anna Magrini & Lucia Cattani & Marco Cartesegna & Lorenza Magnani, 2017. "Water Production from Air Conditioning Systems: Some Evaluations about a Sustainable Use of Resources," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Justo Garcia-Sanz-Calcedo & Fernando Lopez-Rodriguez & Talal Yusaf & Awf Al-Kassir, 2017. "Analysis of the Average Annual Consumption of Water in the Hospitals of Extremadura (Spain)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-10, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christin Seifert & Edeltraud Guenther, 2019. "Prevention is better than cure—Environmental management measures in hospitals," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 781-790, July.
    2. Antonio Macías-García & Justo García-Sanz-Calcedo & Juan Pablo Carrasco-Amador & Raúl Segura-Cruz, 2019. "Adsorption of Paracetamol in Hospital Wastewater Through Activated Carbon Filters," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-11, May.
    3. Miguel Gómez-Chaparro & Justo García-Sanz-Calcedo & Luis Armenta Márquez, 2018. "Analytical Determination of Medical Gases Consumption and Their Impact on Hospital Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-17, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lucia Cattani & Paolo Cattani & Anna Magrini, 2021. "Photovoltaic Cleaning Optimization: A Simplified Theoretical Approach for Air to Water Generator (AWG) System Employment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Nilofar Asim & Marzieh Badiei & Masita Mohammad & Halim Razali & Armin Rajabi & Lim Chin Haw & Mariyam Jameelah Ghazali, 2022. "Sustainability of Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) Systems in Buildings—An Overview," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-16, January.
    3. Mohammed Sanjid Thavalengal & Muhammad Ahmad Jamil & Muhammad Mehroz & Ben Bin Xu & Haseeb Yaqoob & Muhammad Sultan & Nida Imtiaz & Muhammad Wakil Shahzad, 2023. "Progress and Prospects of Air Water Harvesting System for Remote Areas: A Comprehensive Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-27, March.
    4. Salehi, Ali Akbar & Ghannadi-Maragheh, Mohammad & Torab-Mostaedi, Meisam & Torkaman, Rezvan & Asadollahzadeh, Mehdi, 2020. "A review on the water-energy nexus for drinking water production from humid air," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    5. Christin Seifert & Edeltraud Guenther, 2019. "Prevention is better than cure—Environmental management measures in hospitals," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 781-790, July.
    6. Vasco Correia & Pedro D. Silva & Luís C. Pires, 2023. "Energy Requirements and Photovoltaic Area for Atmospheric Water Generation in Different Locations: Lisbon, Pretoria, and Riyadh," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-27, July.
    7. Atienza-Márquez, Antonio & Domínguez Muñoz, Fernando & Fernández Hernández, Francisco & Cejudo López, José Manuel, 2022. "Domestic hot water production system in a hospital: Energy audit and evaluation of measures to boost the solar contribution," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PB).
    8. Domenico Mazzeo & Cristina Baglivo & Simone Panico & Matteo Manieri & Nicoletta Matera & Paolo Maria Congedo, 2023. "Eco-Sustainable Energy Production in Healthcare: Trends and Challenges in Renewable Energy Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-20, October.
    9. Tashtoush, Bourhan & Alshoubaki, Anas, 2023. "Atmospheric water harvesting: A review of techniques, performance, renewable energy solutions, and feasibility," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    10. Lucia Cattani & Anna Magrini & Paolo Cattani, 2021. "Water Extraction from Air: A Proposal for a New Indicator to Compare Air Water Generators Efficiency," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-21, January.
    11. Tan, Yong Zen & Han, Le & Chew, Nick Guan Pin & Chow, Wai Hoong & Wang, Rong & Chew, Jia Wei, 2018. "Membrane distillation hybridized with a thermoelectric heat pump for energy-efficient water treatment and space cooling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 1079-1088.
    12. Gonzalo Sánchez-Barroso & Jaime González-Domínguez & Justo García-Sanz-Calcedo, 2020. "Potential Savings in DHW Facilities through the Use of Solar Thermal Energy in the Hospitals of Extremadura (Spain)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-16, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:4:p:932-:d:137676. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.