Economic Aspects of Building Energy Audit

Abstract

Within the practice of construction economics, cost-benefit audits are carried out by proprietary audits with the intention of reporting the adequacy of any action and decision taken, meeting planned objective of a project or by efficiency audit which requires a more concise and restrictive investigation (like energy optimization) for its reporting. The efficiency audit system is most appropriate for energy utilization and performance investigation since it seeks to compare actual level of energy uses as against planned targets. This economic audit system of building energy requires that information about the energy designs are collected by means of management information system (MIS), reestablishing the data collected, compar-ing potential energy financial parameters with actuals, establishing the possible causes of variance. This is often justified or validated by such techniques as budgeted energy cost variance analysis, present value depreciation method, profit variance analysis, and cash flow and financial criteria analysis.