Solar powered healing

Bendigo Health has more than 100 solar hot water panels installed throughout its hospital campus with additional panels planned for its nursing homes and residential care facilities.

Bendigo Health plans to use solar power to provide its hospital’s total hot water supply during summer. In winter, the panels are used with the hospital’s existing systems to maintain the necessary regulation temperatures.

The solar panels were provided with the assistance of a Department of Human Services grant.

David Walker, executive director of buildings and infrastructure at Bendigo Health, applauds the change. "There’s no question the addition of solar panels is a positive step towards creating an energy efficient hospital," he says.  "As an organisation we’ve got a very strong focus on energy reduction with many more energy conservation products in planning."

He says an equivalent electric system would produce 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

Other energy-saving projects include recommissioning all airconditioning systems, saving $30,000 in the first year alone. New buildings are also getting the clean energy treatment with innovative energy saving ideas:

• In the new school of physiotherapy, opening a window automatically turns off the airconditioning in that area.
• The Lucan Street hospital campus has power factor correction installed, which has increased the electrical energy efficiency from 80 per cent  to 97 per cent, saving over 1150 tonnes of CO2 every year. 

Future projects include a lift upgrade in the hospital's Hyett block set to reduce energy consumption by 20-30% and a new  60-bed nursing home with passive and active energy sustainable design features ensuring maximum comfort for residents with optimum use of energy.

In 2005, Bendigo Health’s chief engineer was awarded Engineer of the Year (Vic/Tas) for innovation in energy conservation.

Water saving measures

Bendigo Health's exemplary water saving initiatives include:

• Reverse osmosis micro filtered waste water and rain water in areas such as toilet flushing systems and gardens on the Bendigo Hospital campus.
• Capturing recycled rainwater in residential and psychiatric facilities for garden irrigation (Joan Pinder Nursing Home, Golden Oaks Nursing Home, Carshalton House, John Bomford Centre and the Stewart Cowen Centre).
• Capturing and recycling rainwater on the Anne Caudle centre campus, a sub-acute inpatient and outpatient facility, for toilet flushing systems and garden irrigation.
• Capturing fire safety system sprinkler water drained from the system during weekly tests and pumping this water back into the sprinkler system on test completion. These projects were made possible thanks to the Stormwater and Urban Water Conservation Fund.

Bendigo Health is also in the process of saving around 70 megalitres of drinking water annually by switching to Class A recycled water in its laundry service and toilets at the Anne Caudle centre.

The organisation's water savings have freed up enough drinking water to service around 200 households in the region.

Sources: ‘Hospital goes solar’, Bendigo Advertiser, 31/3/2007; Bendigo Health, March 2008.