Energy benchmarking for office building towers in mild temperate climate

Abstract

In most underdeveloped countries the lack of access to constructive and consumption data makes it difficult to create a system for the energy consumption classification of buildings. As benchmarking is an important tool for comparing the energy consumption of a building to reference values this study aimed to develop a methodology for the establishment of a benchmark of the electric energy consumption of office buildings in mild temperate climates in which office buildings can operate a significant part of the year using natural ventilation as the air conditioning mode. The city of Belo Horizonte – Brazil was used as a study case. This study was carried out in three steps: Step 1: as data is not readily available it was necessary to establish of a database and a methodology to treat data; Step 2: elaboration of a methodology to create the benchmarking scale using available data; Step 3: analysis of energy efficiency ratings and the proposal of a rating system based on a logarithmic scale. The results of this study showed that it was possible to create a classification range with a 81% degree of reliability for the selected building typologies. In addition, the creation of different classifications according to the type of air conditioning mode made it possible to evaluate office building towers with similar characteristics. The scales proposed also show that for a mild climate, mixed air conditioning mode is a decisive feature in promoting energy efficiency and sustainability to buildings indicating that this strategy should be seriously considered in enforcement building laws.