Portneuf Medical Center Gets LEED Certification

The Portneuf Medical Center became the second building in Pocatello to be LEED certified on Wednesday.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, means that the building meets specific requirements to be environmentally friendly and energy-efficient.

The new hospital has three times the square footage of the old building, but uses 26 percent less electricity.

PMC Chief Engineer Tom Williams showed off the building’s specs on Wednesday afternoon.

“We don’t let anybody on the sixth floor,” Williams said, as he opened the door to what he calls the “lungs” of the building, where the air filters and fans are housed.

“This return fan is only running at 84 percent power,” Williams said as he pointed out the computer screen that’s attached to every filter.

It’s called a variable frequency drive, and most of the utilities in the hospital run on them. A computer controls how much energy is used up, when the hospital doesn’t need heat or electricity from a specific utility, the computer slows the motor down, but it doesn’t stop. That way, there is no excess energy used up to start the heater again.

“We put a lot of technological features into the facility that not only make it pretty but make it environmentally responsible. Things like, the blinds behind you, they automatically lower depending on the temperature,” said PMC CEO Norm Stephens.

Sensors in every room turn off lights and heat when the room is empty. And the computers keep everything on track. One giant blue boiler burned at a beautiful 82 percent efficiency with the valve is open only a tenth of a percent. The bottom line is big savings.

“That works out to about a $21,000 a year savings, with about almost three times the square footage. And we pass that savings on to the consumer, basically,” said Williams. Being energy-efficient means the hospital can deliver better care to patients, too, he said.

The best thing Williams showed off, though, was the roof. Insulation under the roof keeps heat in and cold out. Williams said he likes to go up there on breaks, and with the snow-capped mountains shooting up from the horizon of the hospital, it’s a pretty good reminder of why Williams is doing all of this work.

Williams said 25 percent of everything is the hospital is made from recycled goods.