Status: 07.02.2023 8:29 a.m
Hospital operation around the clock ensures peak energy consumption. The Klinikum Frankfurt-Höchst is now the first hospital in the world to save energy efficiently with a new passive house building.
The excitement is great when the first patients are moved from the dilapidated old building to the ultra-modern new building of the clinic in Höchst, a district of Frankfurt am Main. Everything has to go as quickly as possible. “We’ve had stress sweat on our foreheads for days and weeks,” says senior physician Samantha Wittner.
Moving 350 patients, including the seriously ill from the intensive care unit, within just two days is a mammoth task for the hospital staff. The whole thing was meticulously prepared for four years. We rehearsed for months and packed a total of 7,000 boxes. And now it’s finally done.
Proud of a world first
“It was a logistical masterpiece by everyone involved,” says a delighted Martin Menger, CEO of the municipal hospital network varisano Kliniken Frankfurt-Main-Taunus. Apart from a few “initial ailments” in logistics, IT and building services, everything worked very well, Menger said tagesschau.de. “I think we are all very proud to have moved into this beautiful hospital.” The head of the city clinic speaks enthusiastically of a “quantum leap”.
As early as the summer, the new clinic section was the first hospital building in the world to receive the seal as a certified passive house for its energy-efficient construction. The highly energy-efficient building, equipped with the latest medical technology, cost 260 million euros. On a total area of 79,000 square meters, it offers space for 675 beds and 40 places in the day clinic.
The additional investment costs for the Passive House construction method were around six percent of the total investment costs. That corresponds to around 15.6 million euros, calculates Berthold Kaufmann from the Darmstadt Passive House Institute. The independent research institute has accompanied the construction process since 2011. “The costs for the hospital in Höchst are absolutely within the range of other clinics,” explains Kaufmann.
Huge energy savings and convenience
The building shell of the new passive house clinic received 20 centimeter thick thermal insulation. The windows are triple glazed and their frames are also thermally insulated. In addition, there is the automatic ventilation system with heat recovery, which constantly provides fresh air in the wards and thus greatly relieves the hospital staff. “So nobody has to open and close windows when it gets stuffy, the ventilation does that. We see that as a really big milestone,” says energy expert Kaufmann.
What was special about the approach were the detailed measurements in advance, which have not previously been part of the standard routine. “The special medical-technical requirements for sterilization, but also for laundry or kitchen, generate heat,” explains Kaufmann. The Passive House Institute calculated the hospital’s individual energy requirements in detail. The result: “We now have a primary energy requirement of around 150 kilowatt hours per square meter and year for heating, cooling, hot water, electricity and ventilation.” In comparison, the old clinic building, which dates from the 1960s, consumed more than 500 kilowatt hours per square meter and year.
Role model for the worldwide hospital landscape
Energy costs have become an increasingly important factor for the ailing hospital industry. “Nobody could have known that we were going to have such an energy crisis and that prices would gallop away from us,” says Menger, managing director of the clinic. Now the hospital would benefit greatly: “We are assuming 80 percent savings in gas consumption per square meter.” With constant room temperatures, the building can easily withstand cold winters and hot summers.
“Less CO2 emissions, heat recovery and savings – that’s what everyone is looking for,” emphasizes Menger proudly. “There will certainly be imitators,” he expects. The rush of inquiries from all over the world is so great that the hospital in Frankfurt-Höchst can hardly cope.
Expert Kaufmann from the Passive House Institute also hopes that the Passive House model will catch on, “flow into general hospital planning” and that more hospitals will be planned in an energy-efficient manner in the future. The 14-storey old building of the Klinikum Frankfurt-Höchst is to be demolished in the next two years and replaced by another new building – again in the worldwide exemplary passive house construction method.