Student Housing Energy Consumption: A Comparison of Chilled Water, Heating, and Electricity Use

More than two thirds of the U.S. electricity consumption occurs in buildings, which also are responsible for about 40% of the world's CO2 emissions. Therefore, the "green" building movement has become widespread in an effort to reduce buildings' impact on the resource use and the environment. The USGBC's LEED rating system in one such effort intended to recognize high performance buildings. One of the USGBC's objectives is to reduce building energy consumption, and this paper aims to test this energy-reduction hypothesis. The methodology includes investigating LEED-certified buildings and comparable non-certified buildings on a university campus, and measuring differences in their energy performance. Heating, cooling, and electricity data was collected from all campus buildings and their energy unit intensity (EUI) was calculated. The preliminary analysis shows LEED buildings are not displaying major differences in energy performance when compared to their non-LEED counterparts. This paper's findings make the case for more performance-based certifications, similar to the LEED O&M certification, which should be awarded based on actual energy performance of facilities as opposed to intended performance based on design data.