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Article history:
Received 30 May 2012
Received in revised form 19 September
2012
Accepted 7 October 2012
Available online 23 November 2012
Keywords:
Energy audit
Energy saving
Educational building
A/C of buildings
a b s t r a c t
Electric energy consumption is becoming an important issue for individual as well as for governmental
and private organizations. Electric companies in Saudi Arabia face hard times in meeting the increasing
demand for electric power. This research investigation is trying to study the electric energy consumption
for an educational building located in Rabigh city, 150 km North of Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia. Detailed
auditing was done to the building including constructing materials used, energy consumption, cooling
load and lighting. Temperature and relative humidity were recorded for several places inside the building. Thermal images for the interior zones were generated to provide information about the temperature
distribution and give an idea about air or heat leak from or into the building. Based on the analysis of
auditing exercise, some recommendations were suggested to reduce the electric energy consumptions
which can reach up to 35.3%. The A/C units efciency can also be increased by 31%. The results will be
benecial for the educational organizations and operation and maintenance staff to manage the electric
usage and reduce the electric bills.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The population and industrialization growth in Saudi Arabia is
progressing at a rapid pace which has resulted in large inux of
expatriate workers and migration of local residents to industrial
cities. In the Kingdom, the population has increased swiftly from
8.5 million in 1980 to 27 millions in 2011. This steep increase in
the population has resulted in a huge increased in energy demand.
The existing Electric companies in the Kingdom sometimes could
not fulll these huge demands, which results in a revenue loss of
billions of dollars. In Saudi Arabia, the residential and public sectors dominates the highest shares of energy consumption, therefore, these sectors need attention for energy auditing and energy
conservation measures. Energy management is a challenging task
and got a lot of attention over the last several decades. Optimal energy management practices however enhanced the energy savings
when applied with accurate measurement and veried procedures.
Guillermo et al. [1] has discussed the importance of commercial
energy management which is usually done by non-professional
personnel. In his paper he presented the basic actions for base
improvements in energy efciency in commercial buildings in
operation. Furthermore, the details of the implementation of these
techniques in various buildings in the Universit at Politcnica de
Valncia have also been outlined. The author recommends that
Tel.: +966 500632643; fax: +966 22564933.
E-mail address: hhsait@kau.edu.sa
0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2012.10.005
144
area. Umberto and Stefania [3] performed energy audit analysis for
school buildings of a province in central of Italy. They studied both
thermal and electric energy consumption through energy auditing
technique for 13 school buildings. Energy analysis of the school
buildings showed that electric energy consumptions was between
15% and 25% due to non-A/C sources, while thermal consumption
contributed up to 80% of the total annual energy consumptions.
By comparing the electric energy consumptions and thermal energy consumptions per unit volume, students and classes, they
proved that thermal energy saving can reach up to 38% and electric
energy consumption can be reduced by 46%, if the minimum optimal energy consumption is reached. Recently, Alajmi [4] carried
out energy audit technique to identify Energy Conservations
Opportunities (ECOs), for a two storey building located in hot environment of (state of Kuwait). His worked consisted of two levels;
walk through assessment and survey and data analysis over all
building zones. This assessment found that the electrical and
mechanical systems in the building were not properly operated
and not well maintained. By suggesting some recommendations
he founds that a saving of up to 49.3% of the building annual energy consumptions with a payback periods of less than six months
is possible. Jing et al. [5] reported large-scale investigation of energy efciency (EE) in buildings in contemporary China which
was done in 22 provincial capitals and major cities in China. The
aim of this project was to provide reliable information for drawing
up the Decision on reinforcing building energy efciency by the
Ministry of Construction of China. The surveyed organizations include government departments, research institutions, property
developers, design institutions, construction companies; construction consultancy services companies, facility management departments, nancial institutions and those which relate to the business
of building energy efciency. In addition to the common benets
that are obtained because of the energy efciency, it was also
found that the installation of thermostats and a metering payment
system can achieve a 30% energy saving.
In this study an educational building, namely: College of Engineering Building located in the coastal city of Rabigh is investigated for thermal performance. Detailed energy audit was carried
out. Temperature, relative humidity and power meters were installed on the building to determine the building thermal and energy behavior. Analysis of the measured data was made and
recommendations were generated to lower the building energy
consumption. Payback method was used to analysis some of the
suggested solutions. Typical studies have been done by earlier to
account for the local environmental conditions which can severely
affect the energy efciency of commercial buildings. Hassan [6]
discussed a systematic methodology for optimizing the energy performance of buildings in Bahrain. The methodology is based on
Building Management Systems (BMSs), simulation tools and other
technologies. This methodology was implemented using Visual
DOE and was directly related to collectively gathered data gained
form experimental works and practical applications. In the building under study, approximately 65% of electricity was used for
cooling systems. This was due to the large amount of external
and internal heat gains. It was concluded that the governmental
building, MEW-Bldg., is poor energy and environmental performer.
Xiangfei et al. [7] has studied the energy performance and indoor
environment quality of typical public buildings in Hainan, which
is the only the tropical and island province in China. The author
investigated the energy consumption of in public buildings, including hotels, ofce buildings and department stores. The building energy consumption (BEC) was found to be highest for departmental
stores. The main drivers for this increase in the departmental
stores were also identied. However, BEC of Hainan province was
on a low-level as compared with that of foreign countries and
other provinces or cites in China. Additionally, for rating the IEQ
(a)
(b)
Fig. 1. Monthly average: (a) temperature and (b) relative humidity during the year,
Rabigh [8,9].
145
Table 1
Summary of building specications.
Item
Description
Unit
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
8910 m3
1783.2 m2
900 m2
242.64 m2
250300
100150
7
20
9
9
Fig. 2. Side photo for the exterior wall section and a schematic of the wall, shows
the wall layers, 1: inside air, 2: cement layer, 3: concrete block, 4: R7 board
insulation, 5: granite, 6: outside air.
146
Table 2
Material thermal conductivity and resistances for wall, roof and glass.
ho (W/m2 K)
Granit
Insulation (Expanded
polystyrene slab)
Brick
Cement
layer
hi (W/m2 K)
Total resistance
for the wall
U (W/m2 K)
2.15
0.46
2.3
0.43
0.53
1.88
(W/m K)
Material for walls
k
R (K/W)
15
0.07
2.21
0.01
0.035
1.43
0.51
0.39
0.72
0.14
9
0.11
ho (W/m2 K)
Tiles
Cement layer
Insulation
Asphalt
Concrete
slab
Air
Gypsum
k
R (K/W)
15
0.07
(W/m K)
0.84
0
0.72
0.02
0.035
1.43
0.5
0.1
1.1
0.09
0.027
0.17
0.59
hi (W/m2 K)
9
0.11
Glass (W/m2 K)
0.35
ho (W/m K)
15
0.07
Fig. 3. Average wind speed for Rabigh city during selective days, [18].
3. Data monitoring
3.1. Electric power requirements
The total power requirement and its percentage for various
types of electrical equipments in the engineering building are
shown in Table 3. The electric load for air conditioning system represents about 82% of the total installed power. The electric load for
light is about 5% which is low, since all lights of the building are
orescent types which consume very low electricity and produce
a good amount of light. Other electrical load for the building is still
low, since not all labs are equipped yet. Since the building is new,
the equipment is working with high efciency and without any
waste of power.
The daily energy consumption for the engineering building was
measured using NETWORK ANALYZER MPR-53S [20]. The daily
consumption of the building varies between 1600 kW h and
reaches up to 2000 kW h. The lowest electric energy consumption
was for the weekends. Otherwise, the consumption is considered
very high.
The variation of the electric consumption during the day is also
measured. It was found that during the working hours, 9 AM3 PM
the consumption was about 874 kW h, or about 145.7 kW h per
hour, whereas the consumption for the rest of the day and night
was 1049 kW h, or about 58.1 kW h per hour. This means about
45% of the electric energy is consumed during the working hours,
whereas the rest (i.e. 55%) is consumed during the off work hours.
This also indicates that there is a huge waste of energy during the
off work hours, i.e. the central air conditioning is still running and
the lights are ON.
As was shown in Table 3, it was found that the power consumption is mainly due to air-conditioning. This load was measured
after turning off all electricity from all equipments in the building
except for air-conditioning.
Most of the electric energy consumption is due to air conditioning which reaches up to 91% of the total electric consumption
when all packages units and splits are ON. Electric energy consumption due to light and others miscellaneous load is only 9%
of the total load. Most buildings have the electric load due to thermal load between 70% and 80%, as indicated by Umberto and Stefania [3]. In the case of the existing engineering building, the
excessive electric load is due to oversize of the package units. This
was very clear for our building. When the set temperature is low
for the building, the temperature could reach a very low value in
the neighborhood of 18 C.
Fig. 4 below also shows the total energy consumption for the
engineering building for twelve months starting from May 2011
to April 2012. The highest energy consumption was found in September which is about 80,000 kW h. Noting that the ground oor
air-conditioning was operated in that month, which causes this
high rate of electric consumption, although 5 days of this month
was holiday due to Eid Al-Fitr. Plus, splits units at the ground oor
were fully operated for testing reasons all the time. October is the
most realistic load in which all equipments were operated in normal hours. Comparing the electric consumptions of October to June
or July, where the ground oor was not ready yet, it gave a consumption of 10,00014,000 kW h which is due to electric consumption of the ground oor.
It can be also noticed that the electric consumptions for the
months of November to April are low compared to other months.
The reason behind that is, for November there was Hajj vacation
which is about 12 days. Also, these months were considered of
the winter season in which the outside temperature and solar
intensity were lower than the values during the hot season from
May to September as it can be seen in Fig. 1. Another factor is that
the central air-conditioning was usually turned off during some
cold days. Since the total internal volume for the building is
8910 m3. The average estimated people occupying the building
during the working hours are 300. Number of rooms, classes and
ofces are 36. The department of standard in Malaysia, 2001 code
of particles for non-residential building, stated that the annual energy consumption for the non-residential building should be less
than 135 kW h/m2/yr, Chia et al. [14]. Total oor area for the three
oors is 2700 m2. The average usage of electric power is about
72,0000 kW h/yr, which represents 266 kW h/m2/yr. By comparing
these results with, Malaysia, 2001 code, the consumption is over by
1.97 times, whereas it should be i.e. 135 kW h/m2/yr. However, the
value is slightly lower than the average consumption of ofce
building in Malaysia, 269 kW h/m2/yr, and higher than those of
147
Air conditioning
Light
Ofce equipment
Lab devices
Power (kW)
%Power
625.469
82.9
Split units
Florescent light
Computers
Copying machines
Printers
Scanners
LCD screen
Refrigeration cycles devices
Barometric device
Drilling machine
Welding machine
Elevators
Cosecant lamp
Water heaters
Ventilation fans
Pumps
36.648
38.4
1.2
4.5
1
1
3
1
1.5
4
17.904
10
6
1
2.3
36.6
46.1
4.8
6.1
9.5
1.2
37.2
4.9
754.9
9.0E+04
8.0E+04
7.0E+04
6.0E+04
5.0E+04
4.0E+04
3.0E+04
2.0E+04
1.0E+04
0.0E+00
Energy
Consumption (kW.h)
Total
Fig. 4. Monthly Energy Consumption in Engineering Building starts from May 2011
to April 2012.
Fig. 5. Temperature and relative humidity recording in different rooms.
148
nate HVAC system designs can be compared. So the best design can
be chosen. HAP can simulates hour-by-hour operation of all heating and air conditioning systems, all plant equipment and nonHVAC systems including lighting and appliances in the building.
The results can be used to calculate total annual energy use and energy costs using actual utility rate. All the previous information
and the gathered data can be generated in tables and graphical reports for hourly, monthly and annual data.
This program was used to estimate the cooling load for the engineering building. All building specications are fed into the program.
Jeddah area was used as reference for the outdoor environment
behavior since Rabigh data were not incorporated into the program.
The building is divided into three zones, namely; ground, 1st oor
and 2nd oor. Each one of them is treated as separate system. The
program results estimates that the cooling loads are 35.5, 43.3 and
28.3 tons for the ground, rst and second oors respectively.
4.2. Air conditioning systems
Two air conditioning systems exist in the building. The ground
oor is cooled by split ducted system, while central air conditioning system is utilized at the 1st and 2nd oor.
4.3. Ground oor
The estimated cooling load for the ground oor which is consisted of eight labs and workshops plus the corridor is 57.94 tons
149
and 45 tons for the second oor. By comparing the estimated values of cooling load from HAP 4.5 with installed air-conditioning
equipments, it is clear that the installed ones are over sized. This
claries the high electric consumption as presented in the previous
section. To tackle this problem it is highly recommended to manage the air-conditioning system very well. First of all, the main
thermostat for each oor needs to be adjusted to 23 C. Since lowering the setting value below this can cause excessive energy consumptions. The second recommendation is to turn the A/C units off
after the working hours and during the non-working days, and
vacations. This will help in reducing the electric bills. The third recommendation is to have all A/C units shaded. It is believed that
shading the A/C units from direct sun lights might increase their
efciency.
5. Lighting
5.1. Lightening load of the engineering building
Lighting is the second important source for load in the building.
Depending on type of lamps used and operating hours, the thermal
load and energy use would vary. Spot lights generates high amount
of heat, although they are of low cost. Florescent lamps can give
more light intensity than the spot light without producing waste
heat. Therefore, most of lamps used in the engineering building
are Recessed Luminas with Electronic Florescent Lamps. The lighting installed at the Faculty of Engineering building was duly analyzed the light intensity was measured in the building using
Omega-FLO Lux meter [24]. The effects of window blinds were also
analyzed.
The building has an opening of 2.5 3.5 m, in the roof of the 1st
and the 2nd oor directed to skylight. The opening is located in the
middle of the entrance of the main gate. The building has also 100
outside windows, with three different sizes, of 1.5 1, 1.5 2 and
1.5 2.4 m. The total area of all windows is about 242.64 m2. The
windows have double glass, and all have blinds inside. Most lights
are orescent type which gives good lighting to the users of the
building. The stairs have compact uorescent lamps.
The lighting layout is shown in Fig. 8. The types of lighting xtures used in the building are shown in Table 4. The measurement
150
.2E+03
.2E+03
.1E+03
.1E+03
.8E+02
Lux
.1E+03
.6E+02
.4E+02
.2E+02
.0E+00
Fig. 8. Light Intensity in Lux for various locations of the engineering building.
Table 4
Summary of lighting xtures in the building.
Location/type
Quantity in ground/
rst and second
Power
Total lighting load
(W)
% of Total
contribution
Compact
uorescent
lamps
172
67
64
15
144
24,768
144
9648
18
1152
72
1080
67.5%
26.3%
3.1%
2.9%
Total
(W)
36,648
151
Item
Glass lm (m2)
Control system
Shading (m2), 11 chillers
Lighting Fixture Reduced No. of lightings
Equipment for PQ
Total of new investment, TI (SR)
Item
Glass insulation
Air conditioning
Shading of chiller
Lighting adjustment
PQ equipment
Total cost of saving of energy, TC (SR)
5.
8. Conclusion recommendations
The energy audit is an effective tool to evaluate, analyze, diagnose the energy consumption of the building and help to propose
solutions and retrotting. Modications can be evaluated using
the payback method. In this work a building was selected and analyzed from energy consumption point of view. Suggested remedies
to lower energy consumption were also presented. In summary the
followings are the main conclusions:
6.
1. The thermal load calculated based on HAP 4.5 program suggests
that the cooling load for the ground, 1st and 2nd oor are about
36 tons, 44 tons and 29 tons respectively. However the installed
air-conditioning units capacities are 58 tons for ground oor,
70 tons for the 1st oor, and 45 tons for the second oor. By
comparison it is clear that, the installed units are over sized.
2. The electrical load analysis suggests that most of the electric
load in the engineering building is due to air conditioning which
reaches up to 91% of the total electric energy consumption
when all packages units and splits are ON. Electric energy consumption due to light and others miscellaneous load is only 9%
of the total load. However, in most of the commercial buildings,
the electric load due to air conditioning is between 50% and
70%.
3. Since the energy consumption depends mainly on A/C size, it is
important that the correct size should be installed for long term
energy savings. This should be guaranteed at the A/C designing
stage and the design should be veried by an independent A/C
consultant.
4. Wastage of energy has been noticed when the consumed energy
during the working hours was compared to the energy consumed during the non-working hours. It was found that about
45% of the electric energy was consumed during the working
hours, whereas the rest which is 55% was consumed during
the off work hours. It is suggested that, automatic timers be
installed on the air conditioning units to turn the units off after
prescribed ofce hours and during the weekends, and also to
turn it ON before the starting of the working hours with some
adequate time. Electronic cards circuit breaker may be installed
Savings, S
1000
10,000
265
900
2400
14,565
[3]
38%
[4]
49.3%
[5]
30%
[13]
20%
6 months
36,000
26,500
7.
8.
9.
152