"Green Fingerprint" Project: Evaluation of the Power Consumption of Reporting Stations in a Radiology Department.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES

To quantify the power or energy consumption of reporting stations in a radiology department and to consider a hypothetical scenario to reduce energy waste.

METHODS

We measured the energy consumption of 36 radiology reporting stations over a mean time frame of about 194 days and then extrapolated results to 1 year. Reporting stations were configured (by default) to enter a stand-by mode after 4 hours of inactivity. A hypothetical scenario was calculated in which stand-by was skipped and the reporting stations were shut down after 1 hour of inactivity.

RESULTS

Data from four stations was corrupted. The overall power consumption of the 32 remaining reporting stations was 53,170 kWh/a, equivalent to 12 family households (4500 kWh/a per household in Switzerland in 2014) or 97.2 barrels of oil. We identified three main power consumption patterns of the reporting stations: mainly off, mainly on, and always off. The on-mode consumption per year was 40,763 kWh/a, the stand-by consumption was 10,010 kWh/a, and the off-mode consumption was 2397 kWh/a. The reporting stations spent half of their on-mode time awaiting the initiation of stand-by, resulting in a wait-time consumption of 18,243 kWh/a. With the hypothetical scenario, we achieved an energy consumption saving of 23,692 kWh/a, a reduction of about 45% of the initial energy consumption, equivalent to 5 households or 40.8 barrels of oil consumed.

CONCLUSION

The power consumption of the reporting stations is not negligible. Reducing energy waste in the radiology department can be established through simple changes in device configuration which will simultaneously promote energywise habits.

ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE

Minor changes to the settings of the reporting stations in a radiology department can result in significant long-term energy savings and promote energy-wise habits.