Energy audit of residential building to observe saving practically achieved from low cost improvements

Abstract

Energy consumption in Malaysia has been increasing due to high demand on the electrical energy and increase of electrical equipment usage in residential buildings. There are a lot of appliances that contribute to the high energy consumption of a building such as lighting, cooling and heating appliances. However, high demand of energy contribute to increase of greenhouse gases and lead to high cost of utility bill. The energy saving practice in a building can be achieved in many ways and the effectiveness can be determined through an energy audit of the building. In this project, the energy audit is done in a single-storey residential building in the size of 60 ft X 60 ft with 6 rooms. This energy consumption of the building will be monitored for 1 month for before result and 1 month for after result throughout the project. All appliances are listed and compared in terms of electrical usage. The energy saving practices are done by implementing low cost improvements and monitoring the usage of electricity consumption of the appliances such as air conditioner, dryer, washing machine, automatic gate and water heater. The low cost improvement is done by reducing the usage of appliances in terms of duration and frequents, and reduce temperature setting of appliances such as air conditioner, dryer and water heater. The habit of the occupants when using the electricity is also important where the appliances need to be switch off when not in use, use water heater only in morning, wash and dry all clothes at one time, reduce usage of lighting during daylight, insulate rooms that use air conditioner and use the appliances only when needed according to weather, surrounding temperature and situation. The data are simulated in HOMER pro software and compared to the actual utility bill cost. After energy saving practices are implemented, the energy consumption of the building and the utility bill cost is reduced determined by energy audit compared to before implementing the energy saving practices.