An Assessment of Building Energy Consumption Characteristics Using Analytical Energy and Carbon Footprint Assessment Model

Abstract

The study aims at developing an analytical assessment model for use in assessing building energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emission characteristics. The methodology includes selecting appropriate indicators, tool development and description, indicators description, energy and carbon characteristics assessment, and performance evaluation. The characteristics measured are renewable energy adoption (REA), overall and roof thermal transfer values (OTTV), (RTTV) and (U-value), natural ventilation and daylighting access (NVA) and (NDA), thermal comfort index (TCI) and daylighting access factor (DAF). Operational characteristics indexes are building energy and carbon indexes (BEI_x) and (BECI_x), energy and carbon reduction indexes (BERI) and (BECRI), energy and carbon intensities (BEI_y) and (BECI_y), and billing cost reduction (BCR). Four faculty buildings and a library building were assessed and tagged as case studies A, B, C, D, and E. The case studies assessed have BEI of 79.85, 131.37, 60.21, 161.47, and 63.86 kWh/m²/year and BECI of 55, 91, 42, 112, and 44 kg.CO₂e/m²/year respectively. These values lead to BERI and BECRI of 22, 16, 27, 16, and 36% respectively. From these results it can be seen that case studies A, C and E have the lowest BEI of 80, 60, and 64 kWh/m²/year and the highest BERI and BECRI of 22, 27, and 36% respectively. These give them a higher billing cost reduction of 36%, greater than 80 points, and excellent practice performance. The tool provides all the project-level design and operational considerations, emission reduction strategy, and estimation. The ability of the tool to assess the case study buildings makes it suitable for adoption by organizations and governments for accounting and monitoring energy usage and GHG emission associated with building life cycle activities. The study shows that utilizing appropriate strategies and practice on building design and operation respectively improves building energy usage.

Received: 14 November 2022 | Revised: 4 March 2023 | Accepted: 6 March 2023 

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.