Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relevance of building thermal performance and characteristics to building energy consumption. This paper reports an energy analysis of 4625 office buildings in Seoul, South Korea, using data from the Korean national building energy database and architectural database. The following four research questions were investigated: (1) Do old buildings consume more energy than new ones? (2) Have strict prescriptive building energy codes contributed to the reduction in energy use intensity (EUI, kWh/m2·year) over the past several decades? (3) What are the characteristics of building energy consumption in terms of season, age, and cooling system (electric chiller vs absorption chiller)? (4) Which factors in the Korean building energy database are relevant to building energy consumption? The analyses revealed that, contrary to common assumptions, new buildings did not always consume less energy than old buildings, and it may be wrong to attribute intensification of prescriptive building energy codes directly to building energy efficiency improvements. In addition, the building characteristics (i.e., district, year built, number of floors, number of elevators, and total floor area) available in the Korean building energy database do not adequately explain building energy consumption, and the existing data collection method needs further improvement.
Highlights
The energy consumed by existing buildings accounts for more than 30% of global energy use [1].Given that the replacement rate of existing buildings by new buildings is only about 1.0–3.0% per annum [1], the building sector is expected to continue to be a major energy consumer in the coming decades [2]
With a focus on the relevance of building thermal performance and characteristics to building energy consumption, four research questions were addressed: (1) Do older buildings consume more energy than newer buildings? (2) Have strict prescriptive building energy codes contributed to the reduction in energy use intensity (EUI) over the past several decades? (3) What are the characteristics of building energy consumption in terms of season, age, and cooling system? (4) Which factors in the Korean building energy database are relevant to building energy consumption? To answer these questions, the building energy database and architectural database [20]
Question #2: Have Strict Prescriptive Building Energy Codes Contributed to a Reduction in Building Energy Codes Contributed to a Reduction in EUI over#2: theHave number of prescriptive building energy codes have been enacted in South Korea since the
Summary
The energy consumed by existing buildings accounts for more than 30% of global energy use [1]. The annual total energy consumption of buildings in Gwanak (50th quantile of year built: 2003) was 7 kWh/m2∙year greater than that of Junggu (50th quantile of year built: 1986) These findings contradict the common assumption that the thermal performance, and energy efficiency, of new buildings is better than that of old buildings. Question #2: Have Strict Prescriptive Building Energy Codes Contributed to a Reduction in
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