ENERGY AUDIT AND POTENTIAL ENERGY SAVINGS IN AN OFFICE BUILDING

IN FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC ILARO, NIGERIA

Zacchaeus A. Adetona and Farouk O. Akinteye

Department of Electronic Electrical Engineering
Federal Polytechnic Ilaro
ABSTRACT

The importance of energy cannot be set aside in the economy. It is one of the society’s most
wanted utility which cannot be denied. Despite the value placed on energy, one of its challenges
is wastage which occurs in human daily activities. The objective of the study is to analyse the
energy flow in the Department of Electrical Electronic Engineering main office at the Federal
Polytechnic Ilaro to see where, when and how energy is being used so as to proffer energy
efficiency measures. The study started with energy audit, taking the number of all appliances that
was being used in the building by direct observation and personal interview. A lux meter was
used to measure the brightness of light in each office and a power logger used to monitor and
analyse the total amount of energy utilised in the offices. The results revealed that a total of
34.52 kWh is consumed daily at the department out of which cooling system takes the lion share
at 74%, computer and electronic devices 13 %, water pumping system 8 % and the lighting load
takes 5 %. It is concluded that if old lighting devices such as incandescent, fluorescent and CFL
lamps in use are replaced with LED lamps, and the electric water pump and the ceiling fans are
replaced with energy-efficient types, opportunity to save a minimum of 2.4 kWh (6.96 %) of
energy used daily can be achieved.

1. INTRODUCTION

Globally, the building industry uses more electricity than any other industry and energy demand
is constantly rising because we spend more than 90% of our time in the building such as offices
or homes (Alhorr, et al.). According to Ochedi and Taki (2016), building account for more than
76% of all electricity demand, so building systems can considerably improve the performance of
the next generation electric grid. Advanced building control techniques can offer a number of
services, such as short-term load shedding by controlling water heaters and other appliances to
long term load shifting by utilizing the thermal mass of the building or storage mechanism. One
of the key ingredients in the development of every nation’s economy is energy. Given that
developing nations growing energy needs necessitate significant expenditures to supply them, the
energy industry assumes a crucial role in these countries.

It has been reported by the World Energy Council that since we have used 60% of all resources
for sustainable development over the last 200 years, energy efficiency measures need to be
implemented. Currently, fossil fuels and non-renewable energy sources account for 85% of all
primary energy (coal, oil, etc.) With the rising consumption, these reserves are steadily
disappearing and will not be around for the future generations.

Energy use varies between different buildings. This is a result of the several factors that could
have an impact on the structures such as occupancy rate, building size and orientation,
geographic location, kind of heating and cooling system, degree of insulation etc. It is required to

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conduct energy audit for every building because it is challenging to generalize about energy
consumption pattern.

According to estimate, human settlement account for around 40% of operational expenditures in
developing countries, with energy supply cost making up a sizable component of these costs.
There is an urgent need to reduce these expenditures since they put a significant pressure on the
national economy of practically all emerging countries. Launching sound energy management is
necessary. This necessitates the use of creative management techniques that attempt to conserve
energy. Users of this energy need to be persuaded of financial advantage they might obtain
through energy management.

The form of energy consumed in Nigeria could be the same as other developing countries.
According to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), it was reported that the
share of residential and commercial sector in electricity consumption has increased at a regular
pace since 2016 from 51% to 59% in 2021 (Enerdata, 2023). In 2021 80% of electricity
consumption was recorded from residential sector and this number is increasing yearly (Elinwa
et al., 2021). In Nigeria increasing energy consumption is due to high economic growth in recent
years especially in the residential and commercial sector which consume almost half of the total
electricity that is being generated. By realizing the plans to achieve energy efficiency, energy
saving can be achieved if implemented. This as well improves the lifespan of equipment and
indoor quality could be improved, thereby saving cost and potentially enhances benefit in the
future as well as productivity (Atiba, 2019). Buildings use over 40% of the energy used in the
world, and are responsible for 21% of greenhouse gas emission. To produce a zero energy,
building structure must first be well maintained before increasing energy efficiency with
effective system and appliances (Dury et al, 2008).

The production of energy from power generation facilities releases greenhouse gases into the
environment and this is harmful to human health (Spadaro et al., 2000). Hence the lesser the
energy produced by the generating plant the lesser the emission of greenhouse gas emission
released to the environment. Energy efficiency is the logical and effective use of energy to
minimize profit and enhance competitiveness. The fundamental goal of energy efficiency and
management is to produce goods and services with the least cost and least environmental effect
(Cape & Turner, 1997).

The importance of this study is to get the understanding of energy usage and ways to utilise
energy efficiently in an institutional office building at the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro. Adetona and
Ogunyemi (2019) had made a case for a thorough energy audit of the institution buildings to
achieve sustainable development. The amount of energy consumed in the economy determines
the cost of electricity used, the higher the energy consumed in a building the higher the cost of
electricity and the lesser the energy consumption in the building the lesser the cost of electricity.
2. ENERGY AUDIT SET-UP
When growth of energy consumption is reduced energy conservation is achieved. For instance
using LEDs instead of conventional lighting such as incandescent and compact fluorescent bulb
will only require 1/4 of the energy to illuminate a space. According to the Energy Conservation
Act, 2001, energy efficiency is said to be the monitoring, verification and analysis of use of
energy such as the submission of technical reports which comprise recommendation for

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improving energy efficiency with cost benefit analysis as an action plan to reduce energy
consumption (Owolabi et al., 2020). Global power demand is expected to rise as the energy crisis
subsides. It will increase from 2.6% in 2023 to an average of 3.2% in 2024-2025 (Allouhi, 2015;
IEA, 2023).

Energy demand in building can be impacted by a number of activities involving climate zone,
building envelope, residents and behaviours, ventilation system, lighting fixtures and building
design. These elements, in particular the exterior envelope of the building and its components
influence the energy demand and consumption in the building. When implementing an energy
audit on a structure, it is important to note all the property features in the building including
doors, windows and lighting. The area and heat flow resistance (R-value) for each of these
elements are measured. Air leakage through the building must be taken into account. This audit
may also examine the effectiveness of mechanical systems, such as the air conditioning
equipment (Patrick et al, 2012).

There are 3 main types of energy audit namely:

1. Walkthrough/Grade I Audit: It entails walking through the building i.e. offices surrounding,
surveying the area to see if there are losses in the building, see if all electrical appliances are in
order, checking for visible losses and carelessness around the building with regards to operation
and upkeep. This type of audit takes up to one or three days.

2. Mini/Intermediate/grade II Audit: It entails the gathering of fundamental information,

blueprints, drawing etc. as well as visual categorization. For an energy audit depending on the
size of the building it requires one to three month to complete this type of audit in order to gather
the information accurately.

3. Maxi/Comprehensive/Grade III Audit: It involves preparation of the total energy balance

sheet, drawing energy flow and so on. This type of audit can broadly be classified into
preliminary and detailed energy audit.

Energy audits in building include the following stages.

 Planning and preparation
 Gathering and analysing data
 Environment survey and system measurement
 Review and observation of operational procedure
 Documentation and analysis of data
 Conveying the result and conclusion
Energy audit will aid in better understanding on how energy and fuel are used in building as well
as in locating potential waste source and location where resources use could be made more
effective. An energy audit would reveal the quantity and cost of various energy source (IEEE
Standard, 1995) as well as the type of fuel or energy utilized in a given process that is essential to
utility related operations. It assists in maintaining focus on variation in energy cost, monitoring
energy consumption at different levels, availability and reliability of energy supply, highlighting
waste by relating energy input and production output (Matteo et al, 2014).

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The implementation of energy efficiency techniques can be used to regulate these elements
despite the enormous impact they may have on thermal comfort and energy usage in buildings.
Nigeria has an energy supply problem, even though some buildings could need more electricity.
Access to power is limited to only roughly 40% of the total population (GIZ, 2015). Thus, it is
imperative that energy efficiency implementation be taken serious in the country.

The grade II energy audit was implemented in the Electrical Electronics Engineering Department
office building at the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro. The job involved among other things planning
and preparation, gathering and analysing data, environment survey and system measurement
review and observation of operational procedure and finally the documentation and analysis of
data.

3. PLANNING AND DATA GATHERING

In order to get a more precise result in the energy audit process, field survey measurement and
personal interview methods were employed for collection of data in the building. The front view
of the office building is given in Figure 1 showing the departmental office wings. The survey
was carried out by going into all the offices including the examination and inspection of all
rooms in the Electrical Electronics Engineering Department, taking the number of all electrical
equipment that were in use, measuring the light intensity (brightness) in several offices and the
corridors. The offices surveyed in the department included the lecturers’ offices, HOD’s office,
examination room, conference room, corridor and toilet in the department while some
information was gathered through direct observation.

Fig. 1: Main office building School of Engineering Federal Polytechnic Ilaro

The appliances surveyed included electric light bulbs, printers, photocopiers, televisions,
refrigerators and ceiling fans because they were always in use and were the major energy
consuming appliances of the office building under study. The instruments used in this research
work were lux meter and a power logger. The lux meter was used to measure the light intensity
of each office in the building. It was used to determine if the brightness of each office in the
building were up to standard and the power logger was used to record, monitor and analyse the
amount of energy that was being consumed in the building under study for a period of time. Only

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a limited measurement was carried out due to lack of power supply for extended periods in the
building.

The various areas of focus in the energy audit process are as follows:

i. Lighting

ii. Cooling system

iii. Water pumping system

iv. Computer and electronic loads

The gathered data were used to estimate the total consumption in the building and analysis of
consumption was carried out. The data collected were used to generate total energy demand for
the departmental office floor in the building. From the analysis of the data, opportunities for
energy saving were identified. Various activities within the building that can result in energy
savings were noted and the total savings possible calculated.

4. RESULTS PRESENTATION
4.1 Lighting Load

The lighting load involves both internal and external light in the building. Several light types
were in use during the audit. These are indicated along with their total energy demand in the
building in Table 1. To calculate the energy consumption, a conservative hour of use was
adopted. Four (4) hours for the staff offices per day, one hour for the conference room, and 0.48
and 0.71 hours per day for the toilet and the corridors respectively. The secretary’s office and the
security light were given 8 hours each.

The information on Table 2 shows typical lux measurement for offices in the departmental
building including toilets and corridors, showing lux measurement for each office, and the power
rating for each lighting device in the offices. It can be seen that none of the offices was well lit
because for a normal office the lux measurement should range between 300-400 lumen, the
conference room should range between 300-500 lumen, corridors 50-100 lumen and toilet ranges
from 100-150 lumen. It was also noted that only the offices having LED lamps have the higher
lux value.

4.2 Cooling System

The cooling system comprised of the ceiling fans. There was a total of 16 ceiling fans in the
entire department. An hour of use of 4 hours was imposed on the ceiling fan to determine the
total energy consumption. This is presented in Table 3.

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 Table 1: Lighting system energy consumption
SN Office Quantity Total Type of Hours of use Energy (kWh)
Power Lamp per day (h)
(W)
1 Staff 1 1 35 CFL 4 0.14
2 Staff 2 1 13 LED 4 0.052
3 Staff 3 1 35 CFL 4 0.14
4 Staff 4 1 15 LED 4 0.06
5 Staff 5 1 15 LED 4 0.06
6 Staff 6 2 48 Fluorescent 4 0.192
7 Staff 7 2 15 LED 4 0.06
8 HOD 2 85 CFL 4 0.34
9 Secretary 2 27 LED 8 0.216
10 Exam Office 2 48 Fluorescent 6 0.288
11 Toilet 4 240 Incandescent 0.48 0.1152
12 Corridor 2 50 LED/CFL 0.71 0.0355
1.6987

Table 2: Light intensity measurement in the Building

SN Office Power rating (W) Lux Value Type of Bulb
(Lumen)
1 Staff 1 35 90 CFL
2 Staff 2 13 136 LED
3 Staff 3 35 130.1 CFL
4 Staff 4 15 154.7 LED
5 Staff 5 15 66.3 LED
6 Staff 6 48 96.6 Fluorescent
7 Staff 7 15 175.9 LED
8 HOD 85 118 CFL
9 Secretary 12,15 121.3 LED
10 Exam Office 48 83.5 Fluorescent
11 Toilet 60 23 Incandescent
12 Corridor 15, 35 70 LED and CFL
13 Conference 15,10,48 70 LED and
room Fluorescent

Table 3: Water pump and ceiling fan load

No. of Rating (W) Power Hour Energy
Units (W) (h) (kWh)
Ceiling Fan 8 100 800 4 25.6
Water Pump 1 1119 1119 2.5 2.7975

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4.3 Water Pumps

There was a water pump in use. It was used for pumping water from the borehole to an overhead
tank. The energy consumed by the water pump is indicated in Table 3.

4.4 Computer and Electronic Load

The electronic load comprised all the laptops and desktop computers in the department, the
printers, photocopier and mobile devices charger. Various hours of use were applicable to the
devices as presented in Table 4. The energy use distribution in the department in proportion is
presented in Figure 2.

Table 4: Electronic load consumption

Item Quantity Rating (W) Time (h) Energy (kWh)
Laptop 8 65 4 2.08
Desktop 1 60 6 0.36
Printer/Photocopier 2 615 1.5 1.845
Mobile Charger 7 10 2 0.14
4.425

Com- Pumps Lighting

puter/ 8% 5%
Elec-
tronics
13%

Cooling
System
74%

Lighting Cooling System

Computer/Electronics Pumps

Figure 2: Proportions of energy use

5. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

5.1 Energy consumption share by various loads

From the information given in Table 1 it is seen that the cooling system (electric fans) holds the
highest share of power consumption in the Departmental Building at 74 %. Therefore, ceiling fan
of lower power ratings that gives the same output when considering the building design and the
ventilation system such as the size of windows, the type of the windows, the number of windows
present in the office, the location and the comfortability of the occupants should be considered.
Looking into the lighting load, it was vivid that CFL bulbs, fluorescent and incandescent lamps

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also consume more energy compared to LED bulbs. Considering the lighting fixtures in the
offices which are mostly ceiling mount, LED bulbs can also fit in the design and serve the same
purpose more efficiently with lower power consumption and longer lifespan. From the survey
carried out, it was observed that the other devices such as computers, printers, photocopiers and
other mobile devices were also a major consumer of the energy used in the department (13 %).

The pumping machine takes 8 % share of the total energy consumed. Lighting load, which
illuminates the offices during operation hours, is the least consumer of energy at 5 %. This is due
to the fact that most fluorescent lamps have been replaced with CFL and LED lamps. The
electric lamps in use were mostly fluorescent lamps with few CFL and LEDs. The incandescent
lamp was still in use in few areas in the building notably in the toilets.

5.2 Possible savings

There is a huge potential for energy savings in the building. From the lighting load to the
electronic devices, a lot can be done to carry out energy efficiency. If all the two fluorescent, 4
incandescent and 3 CFL lamps are replaced by LED lamps, there is a potential to save more
energy. Also, there is a great potential for energy savings from the cooling system. All the
ceiling fans can be replaced with low-power consumption types. For the fans, a savings of up to
30 % of total kWh consumption is possible. The saving opportunities are presented in Table 5.

Table 5: Summary of Possible Savings

Energy Savings (kWh)
Lighting 1.00
Cooling System 0.84
Water Pumps 0.56
Total 2.40
% Savings 6.96

Furthermore, the water pump can be replaced with a 0.75 kVA power rating. The possible energy
savings from this is also presented in Table 5. As can be seen from the table, from the electric
lamps only, a savings of up to 1 kWh is possible and from the ceiling fans, a total of 0.84 kWh is
achievable. In all, a total of 2.4 kWh is possible representing 6.96 %. Other savings can also be
achieved through a good energy policy in the building. Staff can be trained not to leave
electronic and other devices on or in standby mode when not in use. This will also result in
further savings.

6. RECOMMENDATIONS

The audit process in the department revealed certain areas such as the HODs’ office and the
examination rooms as the areas where most energy is being consumed. Therefore, all energy
inefficiencies identified in the areas should be stopped and old appliances in the departmental
floor of the building should be replaced with new energy efficient appliances.

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During the survey it was observed that some electrical appliances were turned on even when they
were not in use or were in standby mode. Appliances such as computers, printers, photocopier
etc. on standby mode tend to drain power even when they are not in operation. This type of
excessive load consumption serves as vampire loads. Therefore all appliances should be
unplugged or turned off from power socket when not in active use. Faulty fluorescent fittings
that were still in place (especially fluorescents with chokes in them) are also classified under
vampire load. Fluorescent and incandescent bulbs were still in use in some of the offices while
some faulty fluorescents lamps were still in place. Such a faulty fluorescent with choke intact
uses about 8% of the total power demand by the fluorescent. Therefore all faulty lightings should
be removed.

Ceiling fan consumes much energy and therefore it should be put off when the occupants in each
office are not around. Ceiling fans should be used in unsealed cross ventilated offices and old
appliances should be replaced. CFL also has a higher share in the total power consumption
therefore all CFLs should be replaced with LED in order to reduce the consumption rate. LED
bulbs should be used because it saves up to 80% energy from CFL bulbs and 90% from
incandescent lamp. Occupancy sensors can be introduced to control the lamps at the building
lobby and corridors to avoid energy wasted due to continuous turning on of the electric lamps at
both locations especially in the daytime. Similarly, a timer control should be introduced to
control the security lighting around the building. This will go a long way in saving energy
wasted by the lights. Solar lighting system can be introduced for all lighting applications in and
outside the building.

The water pumping system needed to be optimized for energy efficiency. Many times the electric
pumping machine continuously filled water to an already full tank resulting in wastage of water
and electric energy. Thus, an automatic control system can be implemented in the water pumping
system to avoid such wastages. A stand-alone solar water pumping system can be introduced for
the water pumping system. This will ensure that water is always made available and mains
supply and fuel consumption drastically reduced.

7. CONCLUSIONS

With the implementation of energy efficiency in the main Department of Electrical Electronic
Engineering in the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro, various sections that consume the most energy
were identified. The study serves as an energy efficiency and management measure that revealed
potential energy savings. Different observations made during the exercise were documented in
order to implement an effective power management strategy. If all suggested energy efficiency
recommendation are carefully followed in the departmental building, the building will be on its
way to becoming the most energy efficient building on campus despite the high energy
consumption.

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