Electricity Consumption Analysis of Tertiary Buildings: An Empirical Approach for Two University Campuses

Abstract

An empirical approach for the analysis of energy consumption of existing buildings of the tertiary sector is presented in this study. It allowed the organization and management of large amounts of data according to different timeframes and helped to focus on leading issues about energy uses, and dealt with compatibility with tariff structure. The analysis method, which implied a powerful graphical representation of the results, allowed us to detect critical issues in electricity energy management for public buildings and improve their energy performance. Furthermore, the authors proposed a set of electricity consumption indexes (ECIs) that gave useful insight into the main hotspots. The basis of the proposed method was an automated spreadsheet based data processing procedure. The main advantage of the method was its applicability with a small charge due to the purchase and installation cost of simple data loggers instead of more complicated and expensive technical building management systems. The method was tested exploiting data measured for more than 2 years in several buildings of the Politecnico of Milano (Italy) university.