Achieving Energy Efficiency in Buildings that Utilize Subsidized Electrical Energy
Mar 28 - Energy Engineering
The methodology involved a walk-through energy audit followed by a standard
energy audit. In addition, historical building energy consumption data were
collected and analyzed to determine the waste in energy consumption and thus
establish opportunities for energy savings. Several energy efficient operation
strategies were recommended, out of which few were actually implemented and
their actual energy savings verified.
Since the improvement of the building energy efficiency involved
modifications of operation strategies for the building systems, estimated
savings are achieved at no cost. It was found that the savings are substantial
from two different perspectives: the financial and environmental. Although the
energy audit was actually conducted in a single office building, the savings
were reflected in 800 office buildings to determine the national benefits. The
estimated national financial benefits were found to be 22 million KD ($70
million). Moreover, the predicted environmental benefit indicated a reduction in
the power plants' emissions by 749 million kg of CO2.
This article concludes that the foreseen benefits of improving buildings'
energy efficiency on the national level outweigh those on the individual level.
For that reason, it is suggested that the government adopt a national energy
efficient building operation campaign.
Keywords: energy monitoring and analysis, performance contracting, energy
efficiency
INTRODUCTION
The availability of cheap electrical energy in Kuwait created an ignorant
sense among users in all building classifications with regards to their
consumption. Whether the buildings are privately owned or owned by the
government, the sense of awareness for energy conservation is almost negligible.
Consequently, there has been a significant increase in national annual
electricity consumption. During the past decade, the per capita annual
electricity consumption increased by over 50 percent [3]. Future consumption
trends will continue to escalate if energy conservation and efficient energy
management polices are not enforced. Energy efficiency of buildings can be
achieved through energy auditing by reducing energy consumption. For that
reason, the upper management of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR)
has wisely decided to audit the institute's main building. Although the
building's energy consumption was being monitored by the Facility Management and
Service Department (FM&SD), only minimal efforts were taken to cut down the
building's energy consumption, and they were mainly concerned with lighting
system. For that reason, KISR's upper management requested the Department of
Building and Energy Technologies (BET) of KISR to conduct an energy audit for
the building to minimize the building energy consumption with minimal cost.
BUILDING CHARACTERISTICS
The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research owns several buildings scattered
throughout the country. The management and the majority of employees are
situated in the main building. The building was built in 1986 and can be
categorized as an office/ research building. The building envelope is considered
energy efficient, as it incorporates insulation materials in the walls and roof
sections as well as a double-glazing system. The building utilizes electrical
energy for the provision of the building energy requirements. The major
electricity end users of the building are the air-conditioning system (A/C), the
lighting system, and the office and lab equipment. For the past few years, the
building energy consumption was almost constant. The annual electricity bill for
KISR's main building is approximately KD 25,000 ($80,645). Working out the
consumption from the rate, that is 2fils/kWhr ($0.006/kWhr), the bill indicates
an annual energy consumption of 12,500 MWh.
The building comprises private offices, partitioned offices, a library, an
auditorium, a cafeteria, meeting rooms, and labs. The building has 23470 m^sup
2^ of living space area. A huge area of the building is dedicated to
experimental labs. Almost 54 percent of the air-conditioned area is dedicated to
the labs, excluding the basement area. The building is a two-story building with
a basement that includes emergency shelters, runnels, and enclosure of
electrical cabling and connections. The architectural plans of the building are
shown in Figures 1 and 2. The building incorporates a building automation system
(BAS) that is utilized as an alarm- monitoring station [7]. Furthermore, it is
used to monitor the airconditioning system operation, mainly the inlet and
outlet temperatures of the chillers and air-handling units (AHUs). The BAS is
also used to monitor alarm status of the fire distinguishing system.
To meet the building air-conditioning (A/C) requirements, the A/ C system
comprised 10 air-cooled chillers, each of 373 kW rated capacity. Two are
standby. The A/C system included 4 chilled water pumps to circulate the chilled
water, one of which is a standby. The chilled water pumps require 75 kW each.
The building is regularly utilizing three chilled water pumps all year round, as
well as a minimum of one chiller during the winter season to a maximum of six
chillers at the peak of the summer season [8].
The building lighting system mainly consists of fluorescent lamps. Other
types of lamps were utilized, including incandescent, parlamps, and spotlights.
In addition, special task lights were utilized, such as the emergency lights
[1].
METHODOLOGY
As a first step in energy auditing, a walk-through was conducted to determine
easily spotted misuse of energy by the end user, mainly A/C and lighting
systems. A detailed survey was conducted later to investigate the possible
operation and maintenance strategies (O&MS) by inspecting the A/C and
lighting systems equipment and their operation strategies. Moreover, monthly
power consumption data were collected from the FM&SD, who regularly keep a
manually logged record of monthly consumption. The historical data since 1998
were used in the analysis of the base load-that is, the minimum constant amount
of energy consumed in a building throughout the year.
Figure 1. Main building architectural plan-ground floor
Figure 2. Main building architectural plan-first floor
The monthly consumption data collected by the FM&SD were from meter
readings. The readings were not taken exactly on the same day of each month.
This made the meter readings inconsistent. Thus, in order to compare the
consumption of different years, the meter values were corrected to include the
same number of days for a specific month. To correct for the meter reading
inconsistency, daily average power consumption data were calculated. The monthly
consumption was determined by exploiting the calculated daily average power
consumption.
Weather parameters including the dry bulb temperature and relative humidity
were also gathered. The data were averaged monthly to represent the weather
characteristics for the same period of the meter readings. This was done to
correlate seasonal energy consumption with the weather conditions.
BUILDING BASE LOAD
To estimate the building base load, the monthly power consumption of the two
previous years (1998-1999) was plotted against the monthly averaged outside
temperature as shown in Figure 3. The historical data provided an indication
regarding the major building energy consumers. As it has been explained before,
the base load is the minimum load consumed throughout the year. A horizontal
line that coincides with the minimum consumption in Figure 3 represents it. The
base load analysis is very important for building management. Its importance
resides in the fact that, once it is determined, it will provide the building
operation manager with a mean to check for any abnormalities in energy
consumption.
Since the building is an office building, the major power consumers are the
A/C system, the lighting system, and lab/off ice equipment. During the winter
season, one chiller is in operation as well as three chilled water pumps and the
air handling units fans and motors. Thus the lighting system and office/lab
equipment are utilizing the rest of the consumed power. The base consu\mption of
the building is 800 MWh per month. This amount is being consumed regularly
throughout the year. The base load of 800 MWh actually represents not only the
lighting system and office/lab equipment consumption, but also the energy
requirements for minimum air- conditioning required throughout the year.
Further analysis of the base load revealed more findings with regards to
building energy consumption as shown in Figure 3. The area on the right side of
the curve (i.e. the triangular area) represents the energy consumed by the air
conditioning system in the summer season that is weather dependent [6].
Correlation between the outside weather temperature and the monthly power
consumption required for the building air-conditioning was established.
Figure 3. Main building base load
It is clearly shown that the maximum monthly consumed energy in the summer
months reached a value of 1600 MWh in July 1999. This consumption is double the
base load. Out of this maximum consumption, the A/C system consumed 1155 MWh;
this represents 72 percent of peak month total consumption.
Another important finding was the balance temperature (T^sub b^). The balance
temperature is defined as the minimum outdoor temperature at which cooling of
the building is usually required. For KISR's main building, it was found that
the cooling would start whenever the outside temperature exceeds 15C. Since the
building is using minimum cooling year around with one chiller in operation,
whenever the outside temperature exceeded 15C, the building utilized at least
two chillers.
BUILDING ENERGY USE PROFILE
Since at least some energy consumption data are available for most existing
buildings, a great deal of information can be obtained from an analysis of
whatever data exist. The quantity and type of data available depend upon the
type of metering that is installed in the building [6]. In KISR's main building,
four substations were installed to provide the electrical requirements. The
Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) has installed twelve energy consumption
meters in the main building. The meters continuously display the building's
power consumption. The readings of the meters are collected manually every week
and manually logged by FM&SD personnel to estimate the weekly and monthly
power consumption. Some difficulties were encountered when hourly consumption
data were required for energy auditing analysis. The difficulties were mainly
associated with the allocation of service personnel for data collection. This
led to limiting the analysis to whatever data were available, namely weekly and
monthly consumption.
The building power consumption for two consecutive years from 1998 to 1999,
as well as that of 2000 and 2001, is plotted in Figure 4. The project duration
was one full fiscal year, from March 2000 till February 2001. The consumption is
recorded from the meters at different days of the month. This made the monthly
data collected by FM&SD inconsistent. For that reason, the consumption data
were corrected as it was rected as it was explained in the methodology section.
The corrected data for 1998 to 2001 that are shown in Figure 4 describe the
consumption pattern for those four years.
The minimum consumption was just over 800 MWh for 1998 and 1999. The
consumption of 1999 in general was more than that of 1998. This is linked to the
higher outside temperature (refer to Figure 5). Although the outside temperature
in September 1998 was one degree higher than that of 1999, there is a large
increase in the power consumption of 1998 as compared to that of 1999. This is
attributed to a poor building operation strategy. The total energy consumed for
the building was 12.587 and 13.563 MWh/yr for 1998 and 1999 in respectively.
1999 was selected as the base year for the energy audit analysis; thus, energy
savings will be worked accordingly.
In order to compare building energy consumption with similar buildings that
are considered energy efficient, the building energy density was estimated. The
building electrical energy density, which is the annual consumed electricity per
air-conditioned space area, was found to be 578 kWh/m^sup 2^. This value was
found to be very high when compared to the good practice benchmark density of
234 kWh/ m^sup 2^ for prestigious air-conditioned office buildings specified by
the Chartered Institution of Buildings Services Engineers (CIBSE) [7]. From the
base load analysis and the energy use, it was decided to reduce the base load
and the energy density as much as possible. The energy density provided by the
CIBSE was not targeted; it was used to provide a guideline in achieving energy
efficiency.
MODIFICATIONS OF BUILDING OPERATION STRATEGIES
The base load analysis and the historical annual energy consumption profiles
indicated that building electricity consumption was enormous, and that
inefficient operation strategies were utilized particularly for the
air-conditioning system. Opportunities of efficient building operation were
investigated. After that, several operation strategies were recommended, out of
which some were adapted and implemented by the facility operators. The
recommended operation strategies are listed in Tables 1 and 2. The details of
the recommended operation strategies of the lighting and air-conditioning
systems are discussed separately in the following sections.
Figure 4. Corrected KISR's main building power consumption for 1998-2001
Figure 5. Outside temperature profile 1998-2000
Table 1. Recommended operation strategies for the lighting system
Lighting System
The building architectural design permits the utilization of daylight through
skylights and large areas of efficient glazing. In spite of that, the light
system is utilized primarily to provide the required luminosity. The main reason
behind this misuse of the lighting system is the design of the lighting control
switches. Each switch controls multi-fixtures in different task areas. For
example, in the library, the reading desks area, which is located near the
windows, has the lights on all the time as the switch for this area controls the
lights of the reception area, which is located farther away from the glazed
surface. Similar situations occurred at other areas within the building. In view
of this, a delamping strategy was investigated, and implemented in several areas
of the building. The luminosity level was measured after implementing this
strategy and it was found that it matches the recommended levels by Ministry of
Electricity and Water (MEW) [1].
Another strategy was recommended which involved modifications to lighting
utilization periods. After conducting night-time light luminosity measurements,
it was found that the luminosity exceeded the recommended values. For example,
the MEW standard recommends a value of 5 lux for corridors during the night,
while the measured was 62 lux. In view of this, it was recommended to switch on
only 20 percent of the lights in the main entrance area to maintain the
recommended lux level and achieve energy savings.
Table 2. Recommended operation strategies for the air- conditioning system
During the walk-through audit, it was noticed that some employees were using
side lamps to provide an adequate light level in their offices. They opted to
switch off the fixed florescent lights and use the incandescent side lamps.
Moreover, some employees that have access to daylight did not utilize it;
instead, artificial lighting was used. All these inefficient practices were
adopted to avoid the light reflection and glare on the computer monitor that was
due to improper placement of office furniture. For that reason, a survey was
prepared and distributed to the employees. The survey aimed at determining the
utilization habits of building employees and their requirements. The results of
the survey indicated that out of 263 employees in the building, 113 have access
to natural daylight in their offices. Out of these 113 employees, only 8 utilize
natural light. In addition, 94 employees have side lamps in their offices. The
estimated annual consumption of the side lamps, assuming an average lamp rating
of 60W used 5 days a week for 7.5 hours per day, will be 11 MWh/year (refer to
Table 1). To change the employees' habits with regards to utilization of
lighting system, a third strategy was recommended. This strategy suggested
rearranging the office furniture in accordance with the light angle to prevent
glare on computer monitors. This would motivate the employees to utilize
daylight and prevent them from using side lamps, further reducing consumption.
Air-conditioning System
The building air-conditioning system was operating almost under a fixed
strategy. Six chillers are utilized during the peak summer (i.e. July through
August), and a minimum of one chiller is always in operation during wintertime,
which is from November through January. Throughout the year, all three chilled
water pumps are in operation. The indoor temperature of the building is usually
maintained at 18-22C. The occupants mostly complain about the over- cooled
working environment. A detailed study for the chilled water distribution system
and the air-conditioning system revealed that the air-conditioning system is
oversized [8]. Moreover, it was found that the chilled water could be circulated
with one pump only. This oversizing was intentional as it was assumed that there
would be future expansion of the building, which did not take place. Moreover,
the operation of the A/C system provided a huge opportunity for energy
consumption savings. The two chilled water pumps were not needed for the
year-round operation. For that reason it was logical to recommend switching them
off all year round. This strategy contributed greatly to the savings, as is
shown in the next section.
The daily operation of the A/C system was found to be fixed within the
season. The A/C system was running continuously right throu\gh occupancy and
non-occupancy periods, even during weekends and holidays. In view of this,
different operation schedules are recommended for the A/C system's components.
The supply air (SA) fans and return air (RA) fans that were continuously running
are going to have certain operation schedules that are weather and occupancy
dependent, as shown in Table 2. In addition, the corridors are usually very
cold; their temperature was maintained at 18-19C during the occupancy period.
These dropped down to 11-12C at night. To overcome this uncomfortable situation,
the closure of the corridors' supply air fans was recommended during the
non-occupancy period throughout the year.
The operation strategies for the A/C system included an assertive operation
strategy that is recommended for winter season. In this strategy, the closure of
the chiller and the chilled water pump throughout the season, as well as the
closure of SA and RA fans for all AHUs during non-occupancy period, is
recommended. Basically, only free cooling is utilized during the winter season
by supplying 100 percent fresh air to the building during working hours.
Equipment
Since the main facility building is categorized as an office/ research
building, the equipment is either office equipment such as computers, printers,
fax machines, and copiers, or lab equipment that are usually used for specific
experimental work and testing procedures. Other than those are the equipment or
appliances that are required for other building requirements, such as those used
in the cafeteria and the auditorium. The annual consumption in the lab area
represents about 90 percent of the total equipment annual consumption.
The importance of the equipment energy consumption lies in its continuous use
throughout the working hours and sometimes throughout the day, especially in
poorly managed buildings. This equipment utilization pattern amplifies the
energy consumption. Unlike the energy consumption that is weather dependent, the
equipment's energy consumption is user dependent. This makes the utilization
pattern governed by factors that are difficult to control. Another important
fact that emphasizes the importance of the equipment energy consumption is that
it's considered a major part of the building base load.
The office equipment is standard. It consists of computers, monitors, laser
printers, and scanners. The manager's offices include fax machines,
photocopiers, and electric typewriters. There are 38 laboratories in the main
building, which support KISR's applied research programs. The total area located
by the laboratories is approximately 3,973 m^sup 2^, which is 17.0 percent of
the air-conditioned area.
The equipment electrical consumption was either measured when possible, or
determined by utilizing the nameplate rating. As for the operation schedules,
they were estimated based on interviewing the staff member in charge of the
specific equipment in question. The estimated monthly energy consumption for
laboratory equipment was found to be 215,781 kWh. Thus, the total yearly energy
consumption of KISR's main laboratories' equipment was estimated at 2,589.4 MWh
[2]. The laboratories' equipment electrical density was found to be 652
kWh/m^sup 2^.
ESTIMATED SAVINGS
The aim of the energy audit is to reduce the energy consumption. For that
purpose, the recommended operation strategies, energy savings were determined.
The savings are listed in Tables 1 and 2. The savings achieved by implementing
the recommended strategies for the lighting system would be 147.7MWh/year, out
of which 81.7 MWh/ year was estimated for delamping only. It is recommended that
when a fluorescent lamp is removed, the ballast should be removed as well and
used for maintenance when required.
Table 3. Recommended operation strategies for selected equipment
Additional savings are estimated when energy efficient operation schedules
are utilized while adhering to the recommended luminosity levels during
nighttime. This strategy would save up to 55 MWh/ year.
Since energy auditing also aims at increasing the building energy efficiency,
recommended procedures should not affect the occupant's comfort. Actually,
increasing the comfort level, whether thermal or visual, is considered one of
the targets for energy auditing. In view of this, the third recommended strategy
aimed first at lowering the electrical consumption by diverting the occupants
from using side lamps and encouraging them to use natural daylight. Rearranging
the office furniture was suggested to eliminate the glare on computer screens.
Furthermore, this strategy would improve the working environment, thus achieving
an additional benefit-increased productivity.
In view of the A/C system, the savings that can be realized from adapting the
recommended operation strategies for the A/C are substantial. The over-design of
the A/C system and the energy ignorant operation of the system by the building
operators created a vast opportunity for energy savings. The total estimated
savings that can be achieved by improving the operation of the A/C system are
2753MWh/y-this represents 20 percent of the annual consumed energy of the
building base year.
The major savings were achieved by switching off the chilled water pumps. The
savings achieved by the closure of the two pumps represented 60 percent of the
total savings achieved by modifying operation strategies for the A/C system.
The modifications of the winter operation of the A/C system estimated savings
are over 26 percent of the total saved by implementing the A/C system O&MS.
In addition, the estimated savings that can be achieved by adapting energy
conscious operation strategies during non-occupancy period are 12 percent.
The achieved savings estimated for the implementation of the O&MS for the
lighting system represent 1.1 percent of the total building energy consumption.
These savings, when compared to those of the A/ C system, are considered
trivial. But any savings that can be achieved, especially when they're free,
will be beneficial from the environmental perspective if not from a monetary
one.
As for the equipment, the audit team was faced with the resistance of
laboratory equipment operators. They did not want to change any operational
habits and they believed that their operation was energy conscious. Since the
focus of this audit project was to reduce energy consumption with minimum
disturbances, the operation of laboratory equipment was not looked into. Only
the operation of office equipment, kitchen exhaust fans, and vending machines
was investigated. Few operation strategies were recommended, including turning
off office equipment when it was not in use, as well as the kitchen exhaust fans
and the vending machines. The recommended equipment operation strategies are
listed in Table 3.
The scanners were selected, as it was found that they were left in operation
even when not in use. Thus the closure of the scanners was recommended. This
would save up to 6.0 MWh/yr for an average rating of 40W per scanner for a total
of 19 scanners.
Another strategy that was recommended is the closure of the exhaust fans in
the main kitchen during non-working hours. This strategy recommends switching
off the exhaust fans in the main kitchen during non-working hours; usually these
fans are running 24 hours. It is advised to turn them off for 15 hours during
working days and 24 hours on Thursdays and Fridays. Thus, this strategy is
recommended for a total of 6396 hours.
The closure of the vending machine located in the cafeteria is also
suggested, when not in use-that is, during weekends and after working hours on
Wednesday (i.e. from 3:00 p.m. to 12 a.m.). Only the vending machine in the
cafeteria is targeted in this strategy, as employees working during non-working
hours might use the others scattered in the building. When adapting these
strategies, the estimated annual savings will be 12.1 MWh and 5 MWh for the
closures of exhaust fans and the vending machine respectively.
The overall savings achieved by controlling the use of selected equipment
were estimated to be 23.1 MWh/yr, an additional 0.17 percent savings of the
annual consumption of the base year. These savings may be considered trivial,
but the audit team believes that there are more opportunities with regards to
reducing consumption of office and lab equipment that can be targeted separately
in future studies. In addition, the savings achieved did not require any initial
investment other than the time required for one professional to conduct the
audit. The overall savings of the O&MS of the equipment will be 46KD/y
($149), and the salary of the professional is 32KD/d ($103/d). Thus the cost of
achieving such strategies are covered within the first year, assuming that the
professional will spend one day to recommend such strategies.
The overall savings that can be achieved if all recommended O&MS were
implemented will be 2923.8MWh/yr, which is equivalent to annual savings of 5848
KD ($18,863). The savings, when compared to the annual energy consumption of the
base year, were found to be equivalent to 21 percent, although it was proposed
to achieve 15 percent.
From another perspective, the building base load was reduced from 800 MWh/month
to 300 MWh/month in fiscal year 2000-2001. Thus building operators shall
maintain a conservative figure of 450MWh/ month as the recommended building base
load for the time being. Thus, a 44 percent reduction in the base load can be
easily achieved.
In view of the building energy density, a 26 percent savings can be achieved
as the energy density was reduced from 578 kWh/m^sup 2^ to 425 kWh/m^sup 2^.
VERIFICATION OF ESTIMATED SAVINGS
The savings that were estimated in the previous section were based on hand
calculations utilizing the available data, including nameplate power rating,
load factor for the chillers, and their coefficient of performance, in addition
to the measured a\mpere of the chilled water pumps and the air handling return
and supply fans [10]. As for the lighting system, the data utilized were mainly
from electrical drawings and walkthrough inspection. The total estimated
savings, as it has been shown in the previous section, are 2923.8MWh/ yr, which
is equivalent to 5848 KD ($18,863). The estimated savings, when compared to
billing data, were 5875 KD ($18,950) for fiscal year 2000-2001, equivalent to
2937 MWh/yr annual corrected meter reading. Thus the savings were underestimated
by 0.46 percent. Although not all recommended O&MS were actually implemented
for the whole suggested period, among those that were not actually implemented
are the closure of the scanners (6MWh/yr) and reorganization of office furniture
(11 MWh/yr). Thus, additional energy savings were utilized from reducing
building energy consumption by either occupants' practices or building operation
management.
ENERGY AUDITING NATIONAL BENEFITS
Though the energy audit discussed in this article was actually conducted on
one office building, the savings were reflected in 800 [4] similar buildings to
estimate the national benefits if similar practices were adapted throughout the
country.
The savings were estimated based on the total cost of electricity, which is
0.015KD/kWh (0.05$/kWh), not the subsidized cost of 0.002KD/kWh (0.006$/kWh). In
addition, two conservative assumptions were made. The first is that the
building's annual energy consumption is 12000MWh/yr, and the second is that the
estimated savings that can be achieved are 15 percent achieved by modifications
of their O&MS. The predicted annual savings for 800 buildings are 22 million
KD ($71 million).
From another perspective, the foreseen electricity savings will reduce the
power plant emissions by 749 million kg of CO2. The CO2 emissions are estimated
using a conversion factor of 0.52 kg CO^sub 2^/kWh for electricity production at
1997 figure [5].
CONCLUSIONS
Considerable savings can be achieved by simply modifying the operation
strategies of the building systems. At least 15 percent savings can be promised
when adapting energy conscious operation strategies. In Kuwait, in spite of the
fact that buildings are designed efficiently with respect to the building
envelope, the building operation is habitually energy ignorant. This behavior is
generally associated with the enforcement of energy conservation code by MEW [9]
that controls the peak load requirements but not the consumption of the
buildings. Another factor that is seriously contributing to the overuse of
electricity is the government subsidy of electricity prices. The government
covers over 85 percent of the total price.
The energy audit procedure followed in this study focused only on the
operation of the building. Thus achieved savings are costless. The total savings
achieved represented 21 percent of the total annually consumed energy. In view
of the base load, implementation of the recommended O&MS will drop it by 44
percent. The modified building operation will not only reduce the energy
consumption, but it will also enhance the indoor environment; thus, employee
productivity is expected to improve.
This article anticipated the national benefits that can be realized when all
office buildings' operation strategies are modified and turned into energy
conscious O&MS. The realized monetary savings would be 22 million KD ($71
million). Moreover, emissions by the power plants will be reduced by 749 million
kg of CO2. The anticipated benefits of energy auditing on the national level
outweighs those on the individual level. In view of that, it is recommended that
the government adopt an energy efficient building operation campaign, especially
for the governmental buildings.
Acknowledgment
The successful achievements of this project would not have been possible
without the sincere efforts of the following project team members: Gopal
Maheshawri, Dina Al-Nakib, Fareed Al-Ghimlas, Raba'a Al-Murad, Anas Mirza,
Hussain Joma'a, Abdullah Al-Farhan, and Rajeeve Al-Assiri. Their devoted hard
work and determination were essential to the success of the project. Working
with them was a great experience for myself as a project leader and a great
inspiration to other staff members.
References
[1] Al-Nakib, D. and Al-Ragom, R, Energy Auditing of the Lighting system at
KISR's Main Facility Building. Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research. Report
No. 6105. Kuwait. 2001.
[2] Al-Ragom F., G. P. Maheshwari, D. Al-Nakib, F. Al-Ghimlas, R. Al-Murad
and A. Meerza, 2002. Energy Auditing of KISR's Main Building. Final report.
Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research. Report No 6287.
[3] Al-Ragom, F. and G. P. Maheshwari, 2000. Energy Auditing of KISR's Main
Building. Proposal. Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research. Report No 5782.
2000.
[4] Almudhaf, H. and F. Al-Ragom, 1999. Development of simplified fast facts
demonstrating the impact of energy conservation in Kuwaiti buildings. Kuwait
Institute for Scientific Research. Report No. 5575. Kuwait. 1999.
[5] Energy Efficiency in Buildings, 1998. Chartered Institution of Building
Services Engineers (CIBSE) guide. London, UK.
[6] Krarti, M., 2000. Energy Audit of Building Systems: An Engineering
Approach. CRC Press LCC, New York, USA.
[7] Mirza, A. and R Al-Ragom, 2001. Building Automation System of KISR's Main
Facility Building. Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research. Report No. 6168.
Kuwait.
[8] Maheshwari, G. P., H. Hussain, and R. Rajeeve, 2001. Development and
Implementation of Energy Efficient Operation Schemes for air-conditioning
system. Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research. Report No. 6213. Kuwait.
[9] Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW), 1983. Code of Practice for
Energy Conservation in Kuwaiti Buildings. Report No. MEW R-6, Kuwait.
[10] Pawlik Klaus-Dieter E., Lynne C. Capehart, and Barney L. Capehart, 2001.
Strategic Planning for Energy and the Environment Vol. 21, No. 2.
Fatouh A. Al-Ragom, CEM
Building and Energy Technologies Department
Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research-Kuwait
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fatouh A. Al-Ragom, CEM, holds a M.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering
(thermo-fluids) from Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 1995. She is involved
in a number of projects related to the field of energy conservation in buildings
and energy auditing. Specialization areas cover the following:
* Energy auditing
* Energy conservation in buildings
* Refrigeration and air-conditioning
* Heat exchangers design
* Utilization of heat recovery systems
* Passive cooling systems
* Alternative refrigerants
Working in the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) since 1990,
she now holds a research associate position at the Building and Energy
Technologies Department. A member of the Association of Energy Engineers since
2000. KISR's representative at the Kuwaiti National Ozone committee since 1998.
Holding Certified Energy Manager (CEM) certification, obtained from the
Association of Energy Engineers (AEE)-USA in December 2001.
Email: fragom@safat.kisr.edu.kw
P.O. Box 24885 Safat 13109 Kuwait-EUD/BET-KISR
Tel: (965) 4836100
Fax: (965) 3845763
Copyright Fairmont Press, Incorporated 2004