Evaluation of operational energy pattern and performance of senate office buildings of Federal Universities in of North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

Across the world, buildings are now the subject of research; this situation is not unrelated to the detrimental effects of this industry's massive energy use on the climate. In this regard, ensuring building products are energy efficient has become standard practice in majority of industrialized countries, while emerging nations are falling behind in pursuit of this admirable goal. This investigation was driven by the lack of energy standards, the overall dearth of energy data, and the open-ended nature of operational energy end-uses distribution and performance evaluation in Nigeria. Hence, this study evaluates operational energy consumption pattern and performance assessment of senate office buildings in Federal Universities in North-Central region of Nigeria. Simple energy audit was conducted which covers energy consumption and energy management regimen using energy survey form in the absence of monthly energy bills. Results revealed that energy supply to these buildings is on average of 37.3% to 63.7% from national grid and generators respectively. Energy end-uses consumption pattern showed similar trend to global reports as established by earlier studies. The results also established the dominance of cooling loads, accounting for not less than 40% of annual energy being in the tropical climate. This is an indication that cooling loads is an avenue where significant energy saving can be achieved. EUI of 176.82KWh/m2/yr was derived as performance benchmark. The value is far above global best practises, this implies that these buildings were not energy efficient. Thus, it is imperative to ensure regular energy audit as none of the building has been audited before and ensure that significant buildings are sub-metered particularly senate office buildings for effective monitoring while general refurbishment towards efficient use of energy should be encouraged.