Targeting Zero: Net Zero Carbon for Healthcare Buildings
Username
Andrea Love
Proposer First Name
Andrea
Proposer Email
alove@payette.com
Proposer Last Name
Love
Proposer Company/Organization
Payette
Proposer Job Title
Principal and Director of Building Science
Proposed Session Description
This session will be a case study for two net zero healthcare facilities in Massachusetts. The session will explore the process and strategies used to achieve these goals within this energy intensive typology while also balancing embodied carbon and staying within a tight, public budget. A high-performance envelope designed to passive house principals was looked at for the mechanical system effects and holistically operational and embodied carbon impacts.
Diversity and Inclusiveness
Our session represents speakers of diverse genders and disciplines. The projects located in two Massachusetts Gateway Cities, Chelsea and Holyoke, for the vulnerable population of veterans in need of long-term healthcare.
Learning Objectives
1. Explain strategies explored in two net zero long-term healthcare case studies
2. Summarize the interplay between envelope performance and mechanical systems
3. Identify ways to look at operational and embodied carbon together
4. Define trade-offs on cost impacts between building systems and strategies
Has this session been presented before?
No
Target Audiences Level of Expertise
Level 2 - Some prior knowledge helpful.
Session Format
Presentation followed by facilitated discussion or breakout groups
Session Format Details
35–40-minute presentation presented jointly as a discussion with the architect & engineer followed by 20 minutes of Q&A
Recommended Length
60-minute session
Presenters
Full Description
High-load buildings such as healthcare frequently still rely on fossil fuels to meet these heating demands. The healthcare sector alone represents almost 3% of Boston’s carbon emissions, and has continued to grow, while the building area of healthcare in the city increased 10% in the 2010s. Examples of how to decarbonize this sector are incredibly important to reaching our state climate goals.
This presentation will focus on two buildings, one completed and one under construction, the Massachusetts Veterans Home at Chelsea and the Massachusetts Veterans Home at Holyoke, both of which are designed to inpatient medical standards. Both have zero operational carbon through load reduction, energy efficiency, and geothermal for heating. They have eliminated fossil fuel usage and are powered through a combination of on and off-site renewable energy.
Both projects use innovative, low embodied carbon materials such as wood tilt turn windows, timber curtain walls, and low carbon insulation. Additionally, the Massachusetts Veterans Home at Holyoke followed passive house principals for performance enabling further reductions to the mechanical system, and cost savings overall. The increased performance of the envelope was evaluated for its embodied carbon impacts on both the envelope and mechanical system, which when looked at together yielded a lower embodied carbon for the building.
As part of a holistic understanding of decarbonizing buildings the process for designing to reduce both operational and embodied carbon will be presented. The presentation will also cover the mechanical systems strategies such as geothermal wellfield sizing heat pump efficiency, terminal heating and cooling types, and energy recovery systems that enabled the building to significantly reduce the energy use intensity and eliminate fossil fuels. The presentation will also highlight strategies that support the patients’ health through the design.
As public buildings whose budgets were set before any net-zero aspirations were considered, the design had to balance these aspirations within the existing budgets. This process and the cost-effectiveness of the strategies yielded from his integrated design approach will are applicable for public and private projects alike.