Ventilator brand, not ventilation mode, determines electricity consumption and estimated carbon emissions: a bench study of nine intensive care ventilators
- 1Department of Intensive Care, Çiğli Training and Research Hospital, İzmir Bakırçay University, İzmir, Türkiye
Abstract
Background: Health care generates 4%–5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the intensive care unit (ICU) is among its most energy-intensive environments, where energy rather than consumables dominates the carbon footprint. Ventilators run continuously, yet their electricity consumption has rarely been measured directly and never compared between brands.
Methods: Active power was measured with a single plug-in digital meter on three devices from each of three brands, in every available ventilation mode plus standby (90 measurements). The device was the independent experimental unit, giving an effective sample of nine ventilators. All used integral internal gas delivery, with a shared circuit and test balloon under standardised settings. Power was read every 60 s over 10 min per mode and averaged, then modelled by linear mixed effects (brand and harmonised mode as fixed effects, random intercept for device within brand, brand-specific residual variance). The brand effect was corroborated by parametric bootstrap, the mode effect by equivalence testing; a brand-by-mode interaction was fitted. Emissions were projected across several utilisation and grid scenarios.
Results: Estimated marginal means were 64.9 W (Brand A), 95.4 W (Brand B) and 56.3 W (Brand C). Brand exerted a strong effect (bootstrap p=0.003); mode showed no detectable effect under the tested conditions (bootstrap p=0.51), every mode was equivalent to the reference at a pre-defined ±10 W margin, and no brand-by-mode interaction was detected (p=0.27, limited power). Brand B exceeded Brand C by 39.1 W (95% CI 17.0–61.2): a projected 161 kg CO2-equivalent (95% CI 70–252) per ventilator annually at the Turkish grid factor under continuous operation, and 17 to 161 kg across scenarios. Standby reached 92.6% of active consumption in one brand; the active-minus-standby increment (4.8, 28.7 and 15.2 W) placed most of the between-brand difference in the idle baseline rather than in ventilation.
Conclusions: Brand, not ventilation mode, dominated electricity consumption among the devices tested. The findings support requiring measured power to be declared and evaluated as a standardised criterion in ventilator tenders; because all devices were approximately ten years old, they do not identify which currently marketed platform is preferable.
Related
- Global Protective Ventilator Settings Are Not Regional Protection: A Compartment-Resolved Framework for Personalizing Mechanical Ventilation in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
- Semi‐recumbent position for the prevention of ventilator‐associated pneumonia in adults requiring mechanical ventilation
- Aerodynamic effectiveness of positioning methods for conventional positive pressure ventilators operating in variable configurations
- Video-assisted thoracoscopic diaphragmatic plication in a ventilator-dependent patient with an elevated and dysfunctional hemidiaphragm
- Clinicians Perspectives on Fighting the Ventilator
BibTeX
@article{sezer2026ventilator,
title = {{Ventilator brand, not ventilation mode, determines electricity consumption and estimated carbon emissions: a bench study of nine intensive care ventilators}},
author = {Semahattin Serkan Sezer and Nimet Şenoğlu},
journal = {Frontiers in Medicine},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fmed.2026.1966196},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2026.1966196},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Ventilator brand, not ventilation mode, determines electricity consumption and estimated carbon emissions: a bench study of nine intensive care ventilators
AU - Semahattin Serkan Sezer
AU - Nimet Şenoğlu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
JO - Frontiers in Medicine
DO - 10.3389/fmed.2026.1966196
UR - https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2026.1966196
AB - Background: Health care generates 4%–5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the intensive care unit (ICU) is among its most energy-intensive environments, where energy rather than consumables dominates the carbon footprint. Ventilators run continuously, yet their electricity consumption has rarely been measured directly and never compared between brands. Methods: Active power was measured with a single plug-in digital meter on three devices from each of three brands, in every available ventilation mode plus standby (90 measurements). The device was the independent experimental unit, giving an effective sample of nine ventilators. All used integral internal gas delivery, with a shared circuit and test balloon under standardised settings. Power was read every 60 s over 10 min per mode and averaged, then modelled by linear mixed effects (brand and harmonised mode as fixed effects, random intercept for device within brand, brand-specific residual variance). The brand effect was corroborated by parametric bootstrap, the mode effect by equivalence testing; a brand-by-mode interaction was fitted. Emissions were projected across several utilisation and grid scenarios. Results: Estimated marginal means were 64.9 W (Brand A), 95.4 W (Brand B) and 56.3 W (Brand C). Brand exerted a strong effect (bootstrap p=0.003); mode showed no detectable effect under the tested conditions (bootstrap p=0.51), every mode was equivalent to the reference at a pre-defined ±10 W margin, and no brand-by-mode interaction was detected (p=0.27, limited power). Brand B exceeded Brand C by 39.1 W (95% CI 17.0–61.2): a projected 161 kg CO2-equivalent (95% CI 70–252) per ventilator annually at the Turkish grid factor under continuous operation, and 17 to 161 kg across scenarios. Standby reached 92.6% of active consumption in one brand; the active-minus-standby increment (4.8, 28.7 and 15.2 W) placed most of the between-brand difference in the idle baseline rather than in ventilation. Conclusions: Brand, not ventilation mode, dominated electricity consumption among the devices tested. The findings support requiring measured power to be declared and evaluated as a standardised criterion in ventilator tenders; because all devices were approximately ten years old, they do not identify which currently marketed platform is preferable.
SN - 2296-858X
ER -