Lourdeswas partofthebig ‘SwitchOff’

OUR Lady Of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda “switched off ” as part of the final phase of a major energy saving competition, called the BIG Switch Off.

The BIG Switch Off is part of the Optimising Power at Work Programme which is a staff energy awareness campaign run by the Office of Public Works (OPW). In partnership with the HSE’s National Health Sustainability Office (NHSO) the campaign is currently active in fourteen hospitals across Ireland. Six of the hospitals are participating in the competition, aiming to be named Energy Saving Champion by the OPW and the NHSO.

The competition challenges participants to change their approach to energy usage and conserve as much electrical and thermal energy as possible in their hospital during the August and October Bank Holiday weekends. In doing this, the campaign aims to demonstrate the cumulative impact of small individual savings across the workplace.

The competition to find the Energy Saving Champion was launched just before the August Bank Holiday and over that weekend, enough electricity was saved across the six hospitals to power more than 28 standard Irish homes for a month.

Paul Tighe, senior engineer at The Office of Public Works who was responsible for developing The BIG Switch Off competition said, ‘Our Optimising Power at Work programme has now been running for nearly ten years.

‘Over the last three years we have been working closely with the NHSO, HBS and HSE Estates on installing energy monitoring equipment in Acute hospitals nationally. The BIG Switch Off concept was developed to provide a focused campaign to highlight our presence in this sector and to raise awareness about the way in which staff relate to the energy they consume in the workplace.’

Paul continued, ‘ The BIG Switch Off event is comprised from a series of structured actions, with supporting resources which encourage participation in the programme. The goal is to empower hospital staff to take control of the energy consumed in their workplace. We want to affect a behavioural change, from habitually using energy unnecessarily to habitually saving energy - to Challenge and Save.’

The BIG Switch Off saw each hospital making an extra effort to switch off non – essential equipment in advance of the Bank Holiday weekend. Energy saving teams also monitored heating controls and other electrical equipment.