MECH918 Sustainable Energy in Buildings

The assignment is designed to use “Sustainable Building Design Software Tool” (Note: the software tool might not be perfect) to analyse building energy use to identify possible technical options to reduce building energy consumption, and optimise the design of the air duct system and water pumping system in heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. The technical tool to be used was developed by the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC), University of Wollongong, and can be downloaded from the Moodle site. As shown in the figure below, this assignment consists of three key sub-tasks with different levels of technical details, knowledge and skills. If your group has three members, you need to complete all three sub-tasks. If your group has two members, you need to complete sub-task 1 and sub-task 2 or sub-task 3.

• Sub-Task 1: Building Energy Use Analysis. In this sub-task, your group needs to use a case study building (you can use any commercial office building as your case study) for energy use analysis and system optimisation. This will include, but not limited to, selection of a building location (Darwin or Sydney or Melbourne), and determination of the building level, floor area and window to wall ratio. Based on the case designed, your group needs to estimate the energy use of different building components (i.e. lighting, equipment, air-conditioning, etc.) based on a range of assumptions you used. At the same time, your group needs to analyse building energy performance enhancement through using different energy efficient lighting products and the inclusion of additional insulation layers for building facades.