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WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched the EnergySmart Hospitals initiative, with the aim of increasing the use of energy efficient technologies in hospitals across the United States. \n\nThe EnergySmart Hospital initiative will provide hospitals with design strategies, advanced energy design guides, technology assessments, case studies, training sessions, and an interactive Website to help hospitals increase their energy efficiency. The initiative intends to improve energy efficiency in existing hospitals by 20 percent and to help develop new hospitals that are 30 percent more efficient than current building standards. It will also support hospitals in meeting the challenge of lowering costs while delivering quality patient care and maintaining healthy healing and work environments. \n

"Because of their specific heat and electricity consumption, hospitals are particularly suitable for cogeneration. A characteristic of hospitals is that there is a constant demand for heat all year round, for e.g. hot tap water and sterilisation. This constant heat demand profile has a favourable effect on the number of hours at which the cogeneration unit can operate at full load."

"However, despite this fact, problems with bacterial infections are common in clinical practice. Patients with such complications usually require admission to hospital for up to two weeks longer than the normal patient. Not only do people suffer, but also the cost associated with hospitalization runs into thousands and millions of dollars. Dressings with our coatings could significantly reduce these problems," says Dr. Katarzyna Wybranska (IPC PAS). "

"Donald Sadoway: The missing link to renewable energy Tweet this talk! (we'll add the headline and the URL) Post to: Share on Twitter Email This Favorite Download inShare Share on StumbleUpon Share on Reddit Share on Facebook TED Conversations Got an idea, question, or debate inspired by this talk? Start a TED Conversation, or join one of these: Green Home Energy=Hydrogen Generators-alternative sources Started by Kathleen Gilligan-Smith 1 Comment What is the real missing link in renewable energy? Started by Enrico Petrucco 8 Comments Comment on this Talk 60 total comments Sign in to add comments or Join (It's free and fast!) Sort By: smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Nice smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Good David Mackey 0 Reply 3 hours ago: Superb invention, but I would suggest one more standard mantra that they should move on from and that is the idea of power being supplied by a centralised grid. This technology seems to me to be much more beneficial on a local scale, what if every home had its own battery, then home power generation becomes economically more viable for everyone. If you could show that a system like this could pay for itself in say 5 years then every home would want one. Plus for this to be implemented on a large scale requires massive investment that could be decades away. Share the technology and lets get it in homes by next year. Great ted talk. Jon Senior 0 Reply 1 hour ago: I agree 100%. Localised energy production would also make energy consumers more conscious of their consumption and encourage efforts to reduce it. We can invent and invent all we want, but the fast solution to allowing renewable energies to take centre stage is to reduce the base energy draw. With lower baseline consumption, smaller "always on" generators are required to keep the grid operational. Town and house-l

So how can copper help? Earlier this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the registration of 275 copper alloys as antimicrobial materials, allowing public health claims that copper, brass and bronze are capable of killing potentially deadly bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- the so-called "superbug" MRSA, which is blamed for many hospital infection deaths.

"The market for commercial CHP systems has achieved limited penetration into global building infrastructure, but growth is accelerating. Two primary motivations are driving the increased adoption of CHP today: the potential to conserve energy and to guarantee power supply to mission-critical operations (e.g., research institutions, hospitals, and data centers). "

Increased copper use and communications in the home.