Hospital consulting firm HOSMAC has developed a digital tool designed to help healthcare planners and architects assess energy requirements and identify opportunities to reduce operating costs during hospital design.

Called the Hospital Energy Analysis Tool (HEAT), the platform combines active and passive energy modelling to support decisions on hospital space planning, cooling requirements, building orientation and energy efficiency.

Hospitals operate around the clock and depend on extensive ventilation, cooling systems and specialised medical equipment. These requirements make energy management an important consideration in healthcare infrastructure planning, particularly as hospitals expand their facilities and services.

According to the National Hospital Energy Consumption Survey, conducted under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, hospitals accounted for approximately 9 per cent of India’s commercial electricity consumption in the 2019–20 financial year, using an estimated 9.7 billion units of electricity annually.

HEAT includes two main components. The Space Program Designer helps planners estimate space and cooling requirements at an early stage. For general multispecialty hospitals, it covers more than 800 rooms across over 40 departments, allowing users to develop an initial hospital programme based on their requirements.

The second component, the Building Mass-Volume Explorer, evaluates different building layouts and orientations according to plot dimensions, built-up area requirements and solar exposure. The analysis can help planners understand how building design influences heat gain and energy demand.

HOSMAC estimates that, depending on site conditions, environmentally informed design strategies could deliver savings of 30 to 50 per cent by reducing heat exposure. These figures are estimates from the tool and are not guaranteed savings for every hospital.

The company said the platform aims to bring energy analysis into the early stages of healthcare infrastructure development, when design decisions can influence long-term operational requirements.

The tool follows HOSMAC’s development of the Urban Health Data Platform, which focuses on mapping healthcare facilities and providing information to support infrastructure planning.

The initiative highlights the growing role of digital modelling in designing hospitals that balance clinical requirements, operating costs and environmental considerations.