Trial / Demo
TLC Engineering Solutions used the IES Virtual Environment (IESVE) to carry out the detailed energy modeling required to ensure that Boca Raton Regional Hospital complied with the 2020 Florida Building Energy Code.
Boca Raton Regional Hospital is currently undergoing an extensive retrofit which includes the new Gloria Drummond Patient Tower as its centrepiece, due to be completed in 2025. The seven-story facility will include retail, dining and meeting space, as well as a sanctuary, and outdoor courtyards. Beyond the tower, other enhancements to the hospital campus include the conversion of all existing patient rooms to private, as well as comprehensive renovations to all units including maternity, oncology and orthopaedics.
The IESVE is officially approved by the Florida Building Commission as a code compliance software tool and utilizes the ASHRAE 90.1-2016 Appendix G Performance Rating Method compliance procedure as a method in the 2020 Florida Energy Code. Using the IES Navigator technology within IESVE, TLC was able to quickly and easily step through the process of creating the proposed building model with numerous Energy Conservation Measure (ECM) options such as series counterflow chillers, bespoke shading elements customized by façade, dehumidification air handling units, and complex controls strategies to name a few. The Navigator also allowed them to auto-generate the baseline/budget building model, and auto-generate all the required reports.
IESVE was also used to quickly and accurately generate all of the loads for the project, taking into account ASHRAE Standard 170, 62.1, and calculating heating/ cooling loads. The TLC team also modelled each of the various shading elements to reduce the solar load to near zero on the exterior patient rooms as illustrated below.
By implementing the suggested Energy Conservation Measures the hospital would achieve 40.22% energy savings.
“The team used IESVE to quickly provide quantitative analysis on the exterior and MEP systems of the building. The speed at which we could make model adjustments and rerun to get results, allowed us to study each iteration of ECM fully and completely to optimize which ones would provide the owner the most value to implement.”
Anthony Scaccia, Associate, TLC Engineering Solutions
