| dc.description.abstract | Energy efficiency and conservation have been defined as the cheapest and fasted form of generation and also a key player for sustainable development in economies in the world. The practice of energy efficiency in all Rwandan sectors will increase the sustainable use of our natural resources and further contribute to national economic growth as well as sustainable development. The energy efficiency has the ability to stimulate economic development due to the fact that it will lead to saving of national income. In Rwanda, new buildings are being constructed to meet the ever increasing population and the accompanying socio-economic growth of the country. This thus implies increase in energy supply to meet the escalating energy demand. This research was an investigation carried out in promoting energy performance in building in a bid to developing a new building model that will be efficient and also support a reduced energy utilization in buildings. The Kigali City Tower with 20 floors was selected as a case study in this work. Data including: (i) energy audit data of appliances in this building were captured, (ii) metered data obtained from facility management unit, and (iii) predicted data from eQUEST simulation tool were all considered in this study to measure energy consumption of the model building. Energy audit result showed that among the electrical appliances, desktops computers and linear fluorescent lamps have the highest of the total energy consumption in the offices with 25% and 24% respectively. Furthermore, offices in the building were found to consume more energy, followed by the lifts and then the O-Zone (underground level) with 72%, 15% and 13% respectively. Comparison of the data obtained from energy audit (observed data) and simulated data from eQUEST (predicted data) were made. It was found that there was a good fit between the datasets (observed and predicted) with a correlation coefficient of 76 and 79% for the audited energy and metered data respectively at 95% confidence interval, thus calling for the adoption of eQUEST for energy simulation of buildings in Rwanda. The annual energy consumptions in the building, based on data obtained from energy audit exercise, metered (facility unit) and simulation results are 951,517kWh, 947,210.7kWh and 928,310kWh respectively. Energy performance in building was found to be affected by building envelop, occupancy behaviors and electrical/electronic appliances. Several Energy Management Opportunities were recommended to reduce energy being utilized in this building, based on the energy audit results. Replication of the same model of building (i.e. Kigali City Centre, with the envelopes and other appliances) in all the Provinces in Rwanda, showed that the lowest annual energy consumption was obtained in the Northern region when the building facing North direction and the highest in the Southern Province. | |
