The Relationship between Energy Consumption and Factors Affecting Heating and Cooling

Abstract

Energy consumption in university building has steadily increased over the last decade, and a strong upward trend in recent years. This study was undertaken to analyze the relationship between energy consumption and their affecting factors, six academic buildings were considered. The factors limited to heating and cooling, which is the main end use (nearly 60 per cent of total energy consumption in university buildings), encompassing system and operating schedules (user activity) and area use. To understand how to building is used, operated and managed, walk-through assessment was conducted as well as interview with university staff. The results show that the energy consumption of the humanities building was somewhat smaller than the consumption of the science and engineering building, and its range was from <TEX>$31.26kgoe/m^2$</TEX> to <TEX>$23.52kgoe/m^2$</TEX>, depending on heating and cooling system and area use. And the energy consumption of the science and engineering building was related to operating schedules (user activity) as well as laboratory equipment characteristics. More analysis on a larger number of buildings is required in the future, including building form and material performance level to generalize the significant factors influencing building energy consumption.