Benchmarking industrial building energy performance

Abstract

This paper describes the development of an accurate benchmarking system for high-rise industrial buildings in Singapore. In total, 62 flatted factories were investigated. In Singapore and the region, 'flatted factory' is a term used for high-rise ready built multi-tenanted factories (typically 7-stories high) designed for light industries. These flatted factory complexes are typically developed and owned by the landlord and tenanted to various small to medium size enterprises for light manufacturing, product processing and warehousing activities. Common spaces, shared amenities and services are maintained and operated by the landlord. Investigations were conducted to determine the detailed energy consumption pattern of the landlord. The landlord's energy use includes energy expended in common corridors, lobbies, staircases, washrooms, lifts, plant rooms and car parks etc. Detailed building information collection and analytical studies have been conducted. Results show that the volume of the landlord's spaces and the number of lifts are the two key energy indicators of landlord's energy consumption. From on the results obtained, a benchmarking system has been developed. The benchmarking curve established provides property managers with an achievable energy performance profile and classification. The normalized energy-use intensities (EUI) ranged from 1.02 kWh/m 3/year to 28.10 kWh/m 3/year, with a mean and median of 11.71 kWh/m 3/year and 11.10 kWh/m 3/year respectively. The less energy-efficient factories have been identified for energy performance upgrading. The findings show despite the apparent rationalized and standardized design of this group of factory buildings, the energy performance gap is large between the most and least efficient buildings. It may be concluded that with proper targeting and management, significant energy savings may be achieved. © 2005 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry.