Energy Performance Analysis of a Six Green Star Building

There has been a trend around the world of green schemes and initiatives for construction industry. In Australia, the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) introduced a rating tool to incentivise the industry to improve; building design, construction materials and methods. In 2014 The University of Southern Queensland constructed a six green star building. I have undertaken this project to ascertain if the green star rating tool has produced a more energy efficient building.Other studies have found mixed results regarding energy use with green schemes (Newsham et al., 2009). The technologies and materials used to obtain the green star ratings are sometimes initially expensive with both money and embedded energy however, the nett impact can still yield positive results if designed and implemented effectively. It is important to confirm if the green star rating tool is a good return on the money and embedded energy invested. My research was mainly focused on the air conditioning and mechanical ventilation systems of the building. Initially the ‘as-built’ building was evaluated using the following: • A heat load was taken out using Camel software; • An energy model using Design builder was created; • Actual electrical meter readings were obtained to calibrate the models energy use. The energy model’s dimensions were converted into a Deemed To Satisfy National Construction Code (Australian Building Codes Board) compliant building and the two buildings were compared. It has become clear that USQ’s Springfield campus’ Building 2 is a quality building that has implemented technologies that lowers the energy usage. The Green star building when compared to the Deemed To Satisfy National Construction Code compliant building is more energy efficient. As we live in a world of continuing improvement it is inevitable that the construction industry will be encouraged to improve energy efficiency and the technologies bought on by the Green rating tool will be common place in the industry