A method to evaluate building energy consumption based on energy use index of different functional sectors

Appropriate management of energy consumption provides great support for the sustainable development of buildings and even the whole cities. Nowadays, comprehensive energy consumption monitoring index is widely used in many practical projects to make horizontal comparisons among buildings. However, problems may occur when this method is applied in comprehensive buildings. This paper proposed a method to evaluate the overall energy consumption of buildings based on the energy index obtained from different functional sectors. A linear regression model was developed to predict energy consumption index in multifunctional areas. The model was based on online monitoring data from 30 single functional buildings and 20 multifunctional buildings. The subitem energy consumption intensity difference between pure hotel buildings and hotel sector in comprehensive buildings was within 4.2%. The deviation of sub-item energy consumption intensity was less than 12% between pure shopping malls and shopping mall sector in comprehensive buildings. As for the pure office buildings and office sector in comprehensive buildings, except for heat pumps and chilled water pumps, the deviations of energy intensity of other sub-items ranged from 3.9% to 16.7%. The results from on-site experiments show that the sub-item energy consumption index obtained from multifunctional buildings had lower error than that of single functional buildings. Therefore, the sub-item energy consumption index can also be used to evaluate energy consumption in pure functional buildings. The model proposed in this paper provides a good reference for the prediction of energy consumption index in large public buildings.