ENERGY PERFORMANCE: A COMPARISON OF FOUR DIFFERENT MULTIRESIDENTIAL BUILDING DESIGNS AND FORMS IN THE EQUATORIAL REGION

Abstract

Building sector has been identified as a major energy
consumer with nearly half of the world’s energy used is
associated with providing environmental conditioning in
buildings. Approximately, two third of this is for heating,
cooling and mechanical ventilation. Therefore, there is a
need to optimize building design to be more responsive to
surrounding environment which reduces energy utilisation.
Energy consumption evaluation and audits for buildings is
vital process that can contribute to energy conservation. As
preliminary studies to this research, four low-rise residential
college buildings with specific layout were selected in
finding the relationship between passive building strategies
and energy performance. The study initial approach was to
critically analyse the design of the selected buildings through
scaled drawings and site visits. Comparison of the two were
carefully made to obtain current and post renovation
conditions and surroundings as most of the drawings were
drawn 30 to 40 years back. The elements of bioclimatic
design were implemented as matrixes or criteria, particularly
on natural ventilation and day lighting. Then, the energy
performance was crucially audited to find out Building
Energy Performance (BEP) acknowledged as energy use per
unit floor area, and Energy Efficiency Index (EEI) to
elaborate the kWh/m2/year of each residential college for
five years duration. As initial findings, the implementations
of appropriate bioclimatic design strategies are able to
provide positive impacts to the overall energy performance
of the residential colleges.