Grant: Alliance Grants

To achieve Canada's GHG emissions targets, reduction of emissions across the buildings sector is required. Historically, hospitals have been unable to adopt the technologies necessary to reduce energy use and CO2 emissions due to the critical nature of their operations. This research project addresses this gap by focussing on improving the energy efficiency of hospitals while maintaining comfortable and healing-promoting indoor conditions for both staff and patients. A "Cognitive Digital Twin" will be developed to support facility management of the hospital, providing an interactive 3D environment to identify potential equipment issues and optimize operations for energy use and comfort. The Digital Twin will integrate both fault detection & diagnosis and online optimization smart and on-going commissioning functionalities and be designed to be rapidly deployable so that it can be implemented across multiple facilities. The project will be completed in partnership with H.H. Angus and the functionality of the digital twin will be developed and evaluated through two case studies in University Health Network and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre facilities. By integrating novel data pre-processing, fault detection and diagnosis, and smart and on-going commissioning methods, this research project will establish a foundation for improving energy efficiency in healthcare facilities, positioning Canada as a leader in this emerging market.