Author: Ji Bae
Thesis Title: ENERGY CONSUMPTION REDUCTION OF COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS THROUGH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF VIRTUAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ENERGY AUDIT ANALYSIS
Date/Time: February 18th, 2022 | 4-5pm
Location: EGR 2164
Examining Committee:
Professor Michael Ohadi, Chair/Advisor
Professor Amir Shooshtari
Professor Bao Yang
Professor Jungho Kim
Abstract: According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), about 38 quads of the total U.S. energy consumption was consumed by residential and commercial buildings in 2017, which is about 39% of the total 2017 annual U.S. energy consumption (EIA, 2018). Additionally, the building sector is responsible for about 75% of the total U.S. electricity consumption as well as for about 70% of the projected growth in the U.S. electricity demand through 2040. It is clear that the potential for energy savings and greenhouse gas emissions reduction in existing buildings today remain largely untapped and that there is still much left to explore in respect to determining the best protocols for reducing building energy consumption on a national and even a global scale. The present work investigates the effectiveness of coupling an initial virtual energy audit screening with the conventional, hands-on, energy audit processes to more quickly and less costly implement the energy savings potential for high energy consumption buildings. The virtual screening tool takes advantage of a customized cloud-based energy efficiency management software and the readily available energy consumption data of the building to identify and prioritize the buildings that have the highest energy savings potential and should be given priority for performing onsite walkthroughs and detailed energy audits and the subsequent implementation of the identified energy conservation measures (ECMs). By applying the proposed procedure to a group of buildings, the results of this study demonstrated that a combination of the software-based screening tools and a detailed experimental/onsite energy audit as necessary can effectively take advantage of the potential energy consumption and carbon footprint reduction in existing buildings today and that the low-cost/no-cost energy conservation measures alone can oftentimes result in significant savings as documented in this thesis. However, selection of the appropriate software was deemed critically important, as certain software limitations were observed to hinder the obtainment of the desired energy savings opportunities.