In this guide
Map the campus before adding the bills
List the buildings and energy streams inside the assessment: electricity, fuels, purchased heat or cooling, and relevant on-site generation arrangements. Identify shared services and meters that also supply an office, laboratory, car park or separate tenancy.
Record the boundary diagram or meter schedule with a version date. If the hospital adds a building, closes a wing or changes a shared-energy allocation, the baseline may no longer describe the same activity. Preserve the change rather than absorbing it into an unexplained total.
Check that the chosen benchmarking system's definition matches the facility. The Portfolio Manager glossary distinguishes hospital and other healthcare property types. A clinic, specialist facility and general medical/surgical hospital should not automatically be compared as one category.
Build an energy-stream register
| Field | Reason to retain it |
|---|---|
| Meter or supply account | Connects the consumption to a defined boundary |
| Start and end dates | Identifies gaps, overlaps and period differences |
| Original quantity and unit | Preserves the source before conversions |
| Conversion basis | Explains how different energy streams become comparable units |
| Bill or meter-export reference | Lets the reviewer inspect the original record |
| Actual or estimated reading | Exposes a data-quality limitation |
| Allocation or adjustment | Explains treatment of shared services and corrections |
Do not add electricity kWh, gas volume and steam mass directly. Use an appropriate documented conversion or methodology. Keep site energy and source energy distinct; a conversion of units alone does not turn one into the other.
A fictional baseline example
Assume a fictional hospital has 7,200,000 kWh of consistently defined annual site energy and 30,000 m² of matching gross floor area. Its arithmetic is:
7,200,000 ÷ 30,000 = 240 kWh/m² for the year.
This number is an illustration, not a recommended hospital target, peer benchmark or ENERGY STAR score. The worksheet helps document its inputs; it does not assess whether clinical or building operations are efficient.
Try the calculation
The starting numbers are fictional. Use matching periods, units and boundaries.
A simple arithmetic check. It does not validate your source records or method.
If only electricity data is available, label the result electricity intensity and identify the missing streams. Do not fill missing gas or purchased-heat data with zero to produce an apparently complete baseline.
Keep operating context beside the result
Hospital services differ in ways that affect energy use. Preserve the relevant operating information required by the selected benchmark, together with changes over time. The ENERGY STAR hospital technical reference describes a model that considers business activity and climate; a simple energy-to-area ratio does not reproduce that score.
For an internal year-to-year review, note changes in floor area, service activity, equipment, major refurbishment and metering. State the reference period and whether unusual closures or missing bills affected the result.
An observed reduction should be investigated before attributing it to a project. A changed campus boundary or lower activity can reduce energy use without demonstrating an efficiency improvement. Any operational intervention belongs with qualified facilities and clinical-safety decision-makers.
A practical data-review sequence
- Match the facility and meter register to the agreed scope.
- Confirm that the selected annual period has complete coverage.
- Check estimated bills and subsequent replacements.
- Reperform unit conversions using the documented basis.
- Check floor area against the chosen definition and supporting plan.
- Compare the summary with source records and record unresolved differences.
- Retain the reviewed version and the reason for later corrections.
Use a named reviewer and a concrete question, such as “Does meter H-04 include the leased laboratory?” A blanket “data checked” note does not explain what was reviewed.
Questions you might have
Can a hospital compare itself with an office building?
The comparison may show that the activities differ, but it is not a fair efficiency assessment on its own. Select relevant peers and the appropriate benchmark definitions.
Does lower kWh/m² establish a lower carbon footprint?
No. Emissions also depend on energy sources, applicable factors and accounting method. Keep an energy baseline separate from the resulting emissions calculation and document both.
What is the connection to climate reporting?
A prepared climate figure may need utility evidence, a documented method and retained review history. The reproducibility guide explains that record. Auditably does not operate hospital equipment, calculate an ENERGY STAR score or provide clinical advice.
Prepared with AI assistance using the linked sources and original fictional examples. No customer results, field measurements or independent specialist review are claimed.