Energy conservation in university buildings by energy pattern analysis using clustering technique

Abstract

The energy demand of the building sector is increasing rapidly, driven by the improved access to energy in developing countries, greater ownership and use of energy-consuming devices, and rapid growth in building floor area. Energy demands in the building sector account for more than 30% of the total energy consumption and more than 55% of the global electricity demand. Efforts to develop sustainable buildings are progressing but are still not keeping up with the growing building sector and the rising demand for energy. Analyzing the energy consumption pattern of the buildings and planning for energy conservation in existing buildings are essential. In this research we proposed a method to analzse the energy pattern of university buildings using K-means clustering method. Energy consumption in Science, non-science and office buildings of university is analyzed and their respective base energy, energy consumption due to human activities and air-conditioning energy consumption is calculated. The proposed method is successful in classifying the energy consumption and will prove to be helpful in the planning of energy conservation in buildings.