The Paris Agreement to address climate change came into effect in November 2016. As an advanced international city, the Hong Kong government has cooperated with the agreement and has already proposed to reduce carbon intensity by 65% ??to 70% from 2005 levels by 2030. It also released the "Hong Kong Climate Action Blueprint 2050" in 2021, setting out four major carbon reduction strategies, covering "net-zero power generation", "energy-saving green buildings", "green transportation" and "universal waste reduction", and further striving to achieve the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 2035. Halve carbon emissions by 2005 from 2005 levels.
In terms of reducing the overall electricity consumption of buildings, the goal is to reduce the electricity consumption of commercial buildings by 30% to 40% compared with 2015 by 2050 and the electricity consumption of residential buildings by 20% to 30%; and by 2035 or before can achieve half of the above goals. In order to strengthen the social and environmental responsibilities of Hong Kong companies, the authorities required all listed companies to report in compliance with the "Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Reporting Guidelines" a few years ago, and encourage companies to take practical and visible actions to address environmental issues; by 2019 Listed companies must be more transparent and disclose more key environmental indicator performance.
In terms of public institutions, hospital facilities that need to operate 24 hours a day have naturally become one of the key building types for emission reduction. In addition to the most power-consuming air-conditioning equipment, lifts, medical equipment and lights also consume a lot of electricity, and lighting alone Electric lights can account for more than 10% of the overall electricity consumption, but it is not easy to promote energy conservation and emission reduction in hospitals.
The author has been involved in the construction and maintenance of hospital engineering systems for decades. As early as more than ten years ago, hospitals were the first to make efforts to save electric light consumption. At that time, LED lights were not yet popular, so hospitals had begun to replace old fluorescent tubes or tungsten lights with LED lights, and began to use LED light tubes to replace traditional lighting fixtures in newly built hospitals.
However, the number of electric lights or fluorescent tubes in a hospital often exceeds 10,000. The hospital operates 24 hours a day throughout the year. If you want to replace it, you need to seize the opportunity. For example, you need to replace the light bulbs at the same time when some facilities are undergoing maintenance or annual inspection. Avoid replacement when hospital usage reaches peak periods, such as flu peaks; even if replacement is required, it must be done in stages. For example, the emergency room is crowded with patients all year round and can only be enclosed and replaced gradually.
