Methodology for estimating energy and water consumption patterns in university buildings: case study, Federal University of Roraima (UFRR)

Abstract

Knowing water and energy consumption patterns sets the baseline for understanding their drivers and assessing the performance of potential measures to increase efficiency and/or reliability. These patterns can vary substantially depending on the building characteristics, on the building users and use, on the cultural, social, economic, environmental context in which the building is located, among many other factors. This article presents a general methodological framework for characterizing water and energy consumption patterns in buildings based on the evaluation of the characteristics of the equipments and appliances, as well as the type of users and the activities developed in each type of room. This allows estimating water and energy use, by end use per square meter and by roomtype. The methodological framework proposed was applied to the buildings of the Paricarana Campus of Federal University of Roraima (UFRR), Brazil, providing one of the few examples in the literature reporting water and energy consumption in university buildings in tropical climates. Universities, in most cases, represent large water and energy consumers with distinctive consumption drivers and patterns which have received limited attention when compared to other types of buildings (e.g., residential). The findings have shown that teaching rooms and administration rooms are the main consumers, representing 48% and 49% of the institution's energy and water consumption, respectively. Air conditioning is the biggest energy consumption (63%), while personal use represents 72% of the total water consumption in a building. The toilets represent a large water consumption in a university building (46.40%). Comparing different building uses, the central library is the highest consumer, due to the longest operating time and the highest occupational density. The methodological proposal intends to be a useful tool to support managers and decision-makers to understand the dynamics of consumption and then propose effective practices to reduce water and energy uses, as well as providing reference data for comparison with other educational institutions.

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“…The annual total weighted EUIA of all buildings (155 kWh/m 2 ) was obtained in 2021. As for the results of this study in this respect, they are consistent with the results of the studies carried out by Almeida et al [11] in Brazil, Ghenai and Bettayeb [36] in the United Arab Emirates, and Hamida et al [25] in Saudi Arabia, as shown in In addition, here it should be noted that this value is in agreement with the values found in the studies conducted by Hu [9] and Mytafides et al [21] and differs from those reported by Abdo-Allah et al [30] and Chung and Rhee [14], as shown in Table 2. Furthermore, the energy consumption figures concerning laboratories were not compatible, and this is normal as the installed equipment, the operating time, and the EE of the equipment used all differ.…”

“…The annual total weighted EUI A of all buildings (155 kWh/m 2 ) was obtained in 2021. As for the results of this study in this respect, they are consistent with the results of the studies carried out by Almeida et al [11] in Brazil, Ghenai and Bettayeb [36] in the United Arab Emirates, and Hamida et al [25] in Saudi Arabia, as shown in Table 2, and that may be because the values of CDD are close due to convergent climate conditions. When comparing the results of this study with those of other studies concerning classrooms, for example, we notice that in this study, annual consumption in this respect totals 172 kWh/m 2 , whereas in other studies, figures range between 29 and 145 kWh/m 2 .…”

“…The percentage of AC electricity consumption in this study is consistent with th sults of the studies carried out by Almeida et al [11] in Brazil, and Ghenai and Betta [36] in the United Arab Emirates, as shown in Table 8, where it will be noted that the no agreement between the percentages of consumption presented in general and tha AC load is at its highest level in most cases (except for the case of Greece), and th probably because of the climate, the design of the building, or the difficulty of determi the percentage of consumption according to use (since there is often one source for m uses). The percentage of AC electricity consumption in this study is consistent with the results of the studies carried out by Almeida et al [11] in Brazil, and Ghenai and Bettayeb [36] in the United Arab Emirates, as shown in Table 8, where it will be noted that there is no agreement between the percentages of consumption presented in general and that the AC load is at its highest level in most cases (except for the case of Greece), and that is probably because of the climate, the design of the building, or the difficulty of determining the percentage of consumption according to use (since there is often one source for many uses).…”

“…The authors reported that this can reduce the university's total electricity consumption by 7.19-9.59%. Almeida et al [11] examined the patterns of energy consumption in the buildings of the Paricarana Campus of the Federal University of Roraima, in Brazil. The results of the study showed that classrooms and administrative offices consumed 48% of the total energy used; AC, 63.3% (the largest portion); lighting, 18.1%; personal use, 4.7%; and other uses, 3.9%.…”

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“…However, without doing a detailed energy audit, some researchers use targeted surveys to collect the necessary data for regression analyses. For instance, Almeida et al [25] proposed a methodology for estimating the water and energy consumption in university buildings while Nematchoua et al [26] designed a questionnaire to collect energy consumption data in different types of buildings (residential and commercial) in 12 cities in Madagascar. Furthermore, Ma et al [27] collected energy consumption data from on-site surveys of 17 schools in Tianjin, China and found that a variety of energy sources such as electricity, natural gas, municipal heating, coal, gasoline, diesel oil, tap water, reclaimed water, and alcohol-based fuels were consumed by the 17 schools, while 15 states in Brazil joined a survey to provide necessary data from 5321 schools that were used to build a regression model for annual energy consumption [28].…”