A New Generation of Thermal Energy Benchmarks for University Buildings

Salah Vaisi, Saleh Mohammadi, Benedetto Nastasi and Kavan Javanroodi
Additional contact information
Salah Vaisi: Department of Architecture, Faculty of Art and Architecture, University of Kurdistan (UOK), Sanandaj 0871, Iran
Saleh Mohammadi: Department of Architecture, Faculty of Art and Architecture, University of Kurdistan (UOK), Sanandaj 0871, Iran
Benedetto Nastasi: Department of Planning, Design & Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Flaminia 72, 00196 Rome, Italy
Kavan Javanroodi: Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory (LESO-PB), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-18

Abstract: In 2008, the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE TM46 UC) presented an annual-fixed thermal energy benchmark of 240 kWh/m 2 /yr for university campus (UC) buildings as an attempt to reduce energy consumption in public buildings. However, the CIBSE TM46 UC benchmark fails to consider the difference between energy demand in warm and cold months, as the thermal performance of buildings largely depends on the ambient temperature. This paper presents a new generation of monthly thermal energy benchmarks (MTEBs) using two computational methods including mixed-use model and converter model, which consider the variations of thermal demand throughout a year. MTEBs were generated using five basic variables, including mixed activities in the typical college buildings, university campus revised benchmark (UCrb), typical operation of heating systems, activities impact, and heating degree days. The results showed that MTEBs vary from 24 kWh/m 2 /yr in January to one and nearly zero kWh/m 2 /yr in June and July, respectively. Based on the detailed assessments, a typical college building was defined in terms of the percentage of its component activities. Compared with the 100% estimation error of the TM46 UC benchmark, the maximum 21% error of the developed methodologies is a significant achievement. The R-squared value of 99% confirms the reliability of the new generation of benchmarks.

Keywords: energy benchmarking; university campus; energy performance certificate; CIBSE TM46; thermal energy efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/24/6606/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/24/6606/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:24:p:6606-:d:462032

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().