Energy Performance and Benchmarking for University Classrooms in Hot and Humid Climates

Jaqueline Litardo, Ruben Hidalgo-Leon and Guillermo Soriano
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Jaqueline Litardo: Department of Architecture, Built, Environment and Construction Engineering (DABC), Politecnico di Milano, Via Ponzio 31, 20133 Milan, Italy
Ruben Hidalgo-Leon: Centro de Energías Renovables y Alternativas CERA, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral ESPOL, Km. 30.5 Vía Perimetral, Guayaquil 090902, Ecuador
Guillermo Soriano: Centro de Energías Renovables y Alternativas CERA, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral ESPOL, Km. 30.5 Vía Perimetral, Guayaquil 090902, Ecuador

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 21, 1-17

Abstract: In this paper, the energy performance of a university campus in a tropical climate is assessed, and four mixed classroom buildings are compared using benchmarking methods based on simple normalization: the classic Energy Use Intensity (EUI), end-used based EUI, and people-based EUI. To estimate the energy consumption of the case studies, building energy simulations were carried out in EnergyPlus using custom inputs. The analysis found that buildings with more classroom spaces presented higher energy consumption for cooling and lighting than others. In comparison, buildings with a greater percentage of laboratories and offices exhibited higher energy consumption for plug loads. Nevertheless, differences were identified when using the people-based EUI since buildings with larger floor areas showed the highest values, highlighting the impact of occupant behavior on energy consumption. Given the fact that little is known about a benchmark range for university campuses and academic buildings in hot and humid climates, this paper also provides a comparison against the EUIs reported in the literature for both cases. In this sense, the identified range for campuses was 49–367 kWh/m 2 /year, while for academic buildings, the range was 47–628 kWh/m 2 /year. Overall, the findings of this study could contribute to identifying better-targeted energy efficiency strategies for the studied buildings in the future by assessing their performance under different indicators and drawing a benchmark to compare similar buildings in hot and humid climates.

Keywords: Energy Use Intensity; higher education buildings; energy consumption; benchmarking; hot and humid climates; EnergyPlus (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: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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