Evaluation of Energy Renovation Measures of the Building Envelope in Educational Building Using Building Energy Modeling: A Case Study in Dhurakij Pundit University

Abstract

Energy management planning is extremely important for educational buildings to increase the efficient use of energy. The proportion of energy use in educational buildings is mainly for space cooling. Thus, building envelope plays a crucial role in reducing cooling demand. The objective of this research is to evaluate the energy renovation measures of building envelope in educational building. The building number 7 of Dhurakij Pundit University was used as a case study building. The research employed the building energy modeling technique based on OpenStudio and EnergyPlus to simulate the energy use of 13 energy renovation measures of the building envelope. In addition, the economic analysis was used to analyze the economic feasibility of the 13 measures. The study found that measure M2 (Installed insulation in building envelop) is the highest energy-saving potential with the Energy Use Index of 67.806 kWh/(m²Year) and followed by measure M13 (Installed insulation in building envelop, film and roof insulation) and measure M12 (Replacement of roof insulation) with the Energy Use Index of 69.049 kWh/(m²Year) and 69.140 kWh/(m²Year), respectively. The economic assessment showed that there are three measures having investment returns and technical feasibilities. These measures are M2, M13 and M12 with the investment returns of 533,889.71 Thai Baht, 442,360.34 Thai Baht and 127,139.53 Thai Baht, respectively. The findings and research methods in this research would be applicable for energy retrofitting of building envelope in other educational buildings.