Energy reduction in tertiary education buildings: establishing functional area energy consumption benchmarks using the LLO tool

This research establishes comprehensive and improved energy consumption benchmarks for Australian tertiary education facilities. It examines the audit of energy end use in various functional areas in a sample of tertiary education institutions to identify, control and reduce electrical energy used in typical existing campus buildings. Many Australian universities have data available for energy consumption of their total campus and selected individual whole buildings. However, as the typical tertiary campus is characterised by a large and diversified portfolio of buildings with differing architecture, facades, occupancy and services, energy comparison between buildings does not provide useful information. This differs from energy use and management in general commercial office buildings. Universities also have different disciplines performing different activities that are not directly comparable. For instance, a campus with a medical school or molecular science building (service equipment intensive type) has a different energy use profile from one that does not. This research develops a common tertiary education functional typology within different campus buildings, grouped according to significant architectural features, energy intensity and use, to establish appropriate energy benchmarks for common functional areas such as offices, lecture rooms and laboratories. Assessment of these common functional areas by energy audit allows quantitative comparison between functional areas, and between diverse whole buildings. It also provides a rational basis for establishing performance targets for buildings at the early design stage by aggregation of functional areas. Benchmarking these areas allows energy managers to manage by exception and the benchmarking process enables managers to practise continuous improvement. The knowledge and data from this study enables researchers to focus on those factors that specifically affect energy use for particular activities. This enables building energy managers to discern and rank those major factors that determine energy consumption, allowing them to concentrate their performance efforts on the most energy efficient measures. The benchmarks derived in this study came from audits of 24 buildings at the University of Sydney campus across a five-year period (2009–2014) comprising over 80 distinct functional areas. Using this data, together with local and overseas sources, the LLO functional area energy benchmark tool was developed. LLO is an acronym derived from the surnames of the researcher and two colleagues who discussed the development of the University of Sydney graduate energy audit program in 2009