Heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems use a lot of energy. They account for as much as 44 percent of a commercial building’s total energy consumption, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. It’s clear why healthcare organizations such as Mercy are automating their HVAC systems to make them more energy efficient.
The technology allows Mercy’s facilities department to centrally manage temperature and climate conditions in every room, resulting in millions of dollars in energy savings a year, says Tom Brinkmann, Mercy’s director of facilities maintenance and operations.
The facilities team programs HVAC settings on a preset schedule. Occupancy sensors automatically reduce output if rooms are empty. Once someone re-enters a room, the system restores optimal conditions for patients and staff.
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“With a digital system, we can make sure we are not cooling a space that has reduced or zero occupancy during certain hours, such as nights and weekends. By scheduling it, we can save a lot of money,” Brinkmann says.
Many hospitals are deploying Internet of Things-enabled HVAC systems as part of their smart hospital transformations. The technology reduces energy consumption and enables healthcare organizations to gain granular control of temperatures, humidity levels and air pressure, which improves patient safety and comfort.
Smart HVAC systems also simplify management, allowing staff to use software to troubleshoot problems more easily. However, because these modern HVAC systems are connected to networks, they can become targets for malicious actors. IT teams must secure them.
Security best practices include using network monitoring tools to detect security threats, placing the HVAC system on a network separate from other IT systems, and using VPNs and multifactor authentication to secure access, says Curtis Franklin, principal analyst for enterprise security management at research firm Omdia.
“Always carefully monitor the network traffic in and out of HVAC systems because it should be very well-defined traffic to very well-established and known destinations,” Franklin says.
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