Comparative study on energy consumption at the University of Johannesburg residences

Abstract

This study evaluates the pattern of energy usage at the twenty-eight residences of the University of Johannesburg during the 2016 academic year. The study investigates the trend of energy consumption based on the total energy usage per residence in terms of the number of students at each of the residences on a monthly and daily basis. The data employed in this study was collected over a period of eleven months which is the overall effective academic calendar. The results obtained showed a contrast between the total energy usage per residence and energy usage per student. Sophia town residence recorded the highest total annual energy usage of 1547937.92 kWh while Takalani residence recorded the least which was 101863.73 kWh of all the residences considered in this study. However, when energy consumption was measured as a function of number of students in each residence, Gauta residence recorded the highest monthly energy usage per student (5165.17 kWh), followed by YMCA (4643.84 kWh) while the least monthly energy usage of 581.09 kWh was recorded in Maqhawe residence. Similarly, results obtained from the study on daily energy usage per student in the last five months of the 2016 academic year showed YMCA residence (20.34 kWh) and Lebone (16.42 kWh) as the two residences with the highest daily energy usage per student respectively. However, the energy usage does not follow a regular pattern within the period under consideration.