ZEMCH 2019 International Conference Proceedings April.2020 | Page 109
1. Introduction
Buildings are responsible for a third of global final energy consumption and similar levels of CO2
emissions [1]; as such the energy performance of buildings is an area that has assumed increasing
importance worldwide. The International Energy Agency (IEA) describes energy efficiency as the “first
fuel” [2], with greater importance than any generation‐side technology, and studies have shown that
the greatest potential for energy efficiency is in the buildings sector [3]. However, as the built
environment becomes increasingly complex, with multiple uses, larger buildings and higher demand
for services such as thermal comfort and data processing [4], the analysis and evaluation of performance
in buildings becomes a non‐trivial problem. Since the introduction of the first building regulations
aimed at energy conservation in the 1970s, and the increased focus on this area in the late 1990s and
2000s [5], a wide range of methodologies has been developed for predicting, analyzing and evaluating
the energy performance of buildings. There is extensive evidence to suggest that buildings usually do
not perform as well as predicted [6‐9]. This discrepancy is commonly referred to as the ‘Energy
Performance Gap’.
The practice of Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) aims to address this issue by evaluating the
performance of a building after it has been built and occupied to provide designers with valuable
feedback on its actual performance in‐use. Detailed Dynamic Simulation Models (DSMs) can be used
to obtain predictions of in‐use energy performance. DSMs are more suited to the functional and
volumetric complexities of non‐domestic buildings as they allow for more detailed input options whilst
also containing extensive database for materials and systems [10]. Despite these and many other added
capabilities, there is still a significant gap between predicted and actual energy consumption in non‐
domestic buildings.
In this study, a case study of university building’s energy audit and thermal comfort monitoring
was carried out and the audit with comfort study results was analyzed to identify factors of the
performance gap. The energy audit data and POE analysis was used for evaluating dynamic simulation
model and energy reduction achievement by energy audit and POE analysis. Through this research, it
shows that energy audit is possible to reduce the energy performance gap and POE can be used to
produce more accurate energy performance models with increase in the indoor environmental quality.
The research findings will be implement for reducing energy consumption with improving user
comport for case study building and others.
2. The Energy Performance Gap
2.1 The energy performance gap
There is significant evidence to suggest that buildings do not perform as designed. Findings from
the PROBE studies (Post Occupancy Review of Buildings and their Engineering) demonstrated that
actual energy consumption in buildings are usually twice as much as predicted [9]. Low Carbon
Building Programme and Carbon Trust’s Low Building Accelerator have demonstrated that in‐use
energy consumption can be up to five times higher than compliance calculation [11].
Figure 1. CarbonBuzz median electrical consumption per‐sector: predicted vs actual
Using Energy Audit with POE Study to Reduce Energy Performance Gap in an Office Building in UAE
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