Assessment of the Potential Savings Resulting From Shutting Down University Buildings during Periods of Very Low Occupancy: A Case Study

Unlike residential buildings, commercial and institutional buildings have a huge diversity of energy end uses and installed capacities. They also have the least amount of measured data available about occupancy profiles. This is especially the case for common university buildings. This reality poses significant challenges to improving their energy performance and informing energy management decisions and policies. University buildings differ from many other types of buildings. Their occupancy profiles have unique features such as extreme low and high occupancy within short periods of time and often very low occupancy in the evenings and during college breaks, weekends, and holidays. In addition to classrooms, these buildings house administrative services, research laboratories, catering, and other activities, meaning that all systems can be operating at full capacity even during low occupancy periods in order to maintain desired thermal comfort levels. This may result in a large consumption of energy per building occupant. Therefore, better space utilization should be a priority if any significant cost savings are to be achieved without any substantial upfront investment. With the overall target of using Texas A&M University campus in Kingsville, Texas, (TAMUK), as a test bed to examine energy efficiency in university buildings this work reports the results of an initial study of energy usage profiles during very low occupancy periods for a representative building within the TAMUK campus and presents possible solutions to improve energy usage with the potential energy savings. It is believed that the information gathered is of the foremost value to other institutions of higher education sharing similar characteristics and environmental concerns.