A STUDY ON THE EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF GREEN BUILDING

Abstract

Up till today, more than 500 buildings have achieved the BCA Green Mark Award. This scheme has placed strong emphasis on the design for new green buildings and also the implementation of new measures to improve the performance for existing buildings. However, little concern is address on the operation and maintenance of the green buildings. Therefore, it is crucial to have the expertise to operate, manage and maintain the green buildings. Without it, energy-saving features might not be functioning at its optimal to gain the expected energy savings. In this light, this research seeks to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of green building as well as introduce a baseline model for management to track and monitor energy savings. Two in-depth case studies were performed on a green residential building and a green campus. The research methodologies adopted were site observations, interviews, computation of EEI, comparative studies and utility bills analysis method. In the course of the examination of EEI and utility bills analysis, the efficiency and effectiveness of the energy-saving features are doubtful. Though the EEI of the buildings are under the excellent category, the trend of the results has shown discrepancy. Besides that, the results evaluate through the utility bills analysis are inconsistent as well. Hence, other factors, such as the operation, management and maintenance, have to be considered as well. Recommendations were proposed to address to those issues.