Abstract
Electricity is the main energy source consumed whereby our daily activities are predominantly and increasingly dependent on it. In the developing world where most countries steadily undergo rapid urbanization and population growth, energy consumption has immensely intensified over the last few decades. High energy demand is greatly propelled by consumption especially in residential, commercial, and university buildings. With the growing demands for electricity, increased costs of power and the desire to minimize dependence on energy generated by fossil fuels, initiative for efficient energy consumption particularly in building is given an increasing attention across the nation. Higher education is a growing sector with student numbers increasing every year. This means that the energy consumption of universities is also growing. This paper focuses on energy audit activities conducted in eight student hostel buildings of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) to assess the level of total energy consumption. Concurrently, the level of student engagement in sustainable energy consumption practices was evaluated. Furthermore, energy consumption for lighting in each hostel was determined through a survey. The results garnered from the audit were evaluated and feasible alternatives for potential energy saving and conservation measures were consequently identified and recommended to improve energy efficiency in the buildings.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Assumptions
-
1.
Each student in hostel room uses only one long and short fluorescent tubes except for the hostels Fajar Harapan, Restu, Saujana and Tekun where each student shares one long fluorescent tube. Due to this sharing, a weightage of 0.5 was assigned during the calculation of the energy usage for a fair comparison.
-
2.
All rooms in the hostels are fully occupied by students.
-
3.
Power that consumed by long and short fluorescent tubes are 36 and 18Â W, respectively.
-
1.
References
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Energy Demand and Supply Outlook Fifth Edition. (2013). Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre, Japan.
Baskar, R. H., Mittal, H., Narkhede, M. S., & Chatterji, S. (2014). Energy audit—A case study. International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering, 4(3), 73–78.
Bansod, D., Jain, P., & Gour, A. (2015). Energy audit of university polytechnic of RGPV & boys hostel I. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science & Technology, 3(2), 48–52.
Electricity Supply Industry in Malaysia-Performance and Statistical Information. (2012). Energy Commission of Malaysia.
Global Energy Statistical Yearbook. (2014). Enerdata.
Jayamaha, L. (2007). Energy-efficient building systems. McGraw-Hill.
Kumar, S., & Kaur, T. (2013). Energy audit: A case study. International Journal of Research in Management, Science & Technology, 1(1), 28–32.
Kwon, S.-Y., Im, K.-I., & Lim, J.-H. (2014). LED context lighting system in residential areas. The Scientific World Journal, 2014.
Lamba, M. K., & Sanghi, A. (2015). Energy audit on academic building. International Journal of Engineering Research and General Science, 3(4).
Mohammed, M. A., & Budaiwi, I. M. (2013). Strategies for reducing energy consumption in a student cafeteria in a hot-humid climate: A case study. Journal of Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems, 1(1), 14–26.
Pandey, S., Hooda, R., & Mishra, A. (2012). Proposed plan for disposal of mercury-bearing lamps for India. In B. Bilitewski, R. M. Darbra, D. Barceló (Eds.), Global risk-based management of chemical additives II: Risk-based assessment and management strategies (Vol. 23, pp. 419–440). Springer.
Rahman. (2014, April 22). USM Earth Hour 2014 boosts 4000 participants. Berita Kampus. Retrieved from http://www.beritakampus.usm.my/index.php/berita/sekitar-kampus/1109-usm-earth-hour-2014-boosts-4-000-participants
Ramya, L. N., & Femina, M. A. (2014). Energy auditing a walk-through survey. International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, 3(2), 2320–3765.
Sadrzadehrafiei, S., Sopian, K., Mat, S., & Lim, C. (2011). Energy consumption and energy saving in Malaysian office buildings. Models and methods in Applied sciences. In N. Mastorakis, M. Demiralp, & N. A. Baykara (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Environment, Economics, Energy, Devices, Systems, Communications, Computers, Mathematics. IAASAT Press.
Saleh, A. A., Mohammed, A. H., & Abdullah, M. N. (2015). Critical success factors for successful energy management implementation towards sustainability in Malaysian Universities. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering, 9(3), 740–748.
Singh, M., Singh, G., & Singh, H. (2012). Energy audit: A case study to reduce lighting cost. Asian Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology, 2(5), 119–122.
Sison, M. D. (2013). Creative strategic communications: A case study of Earth Hour. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 7(4), 227–240.
Soni, N. B., & Devendra, P. (2008). The transition to led illumination: A case study on energy conservation. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology, 1083–1087.
Tan, C. S., Maragatham. K., & Leong, Y. P. (2013). Energy outlook in Malaysia. In 4th International Conference on Energy and Environment 2013 (ICEE 2013). IOP Publishing. IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 16.
Thapa, B., Bista, D., & Basnet, S. (2014). Benefits and opportunity of new technology of lighting with reference to case study of Kathmandu University. Dhulikhel. Rentech. Symposium Compendium, 4, 47–52.
Unachukwu, G. O. (2010). Energy savings opportunities at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Journal of Energy in Southern Africa, 21(1), 1–10.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). (2012). World urbanization prospects, the 2011 revision. New York, NY: United Nations.
Utazi, D. N., Ezurike, B. O. (2015). Energy audit of Madonna University Akpugo Campus. International Journal of Scientific Research in Information Systems and Engineering, 1(2).
Wai, C. W., Abdul Hakim Mohammed, A. H., & Low Sheau Ting, L. S. (2011). Energy management key practices: A proposed list for Malaysian universities. International Journal of Energy and Environment, 2(4), 749–760.
Walls, H. L., Walls, K. L., & Benke, G. (2011). Eye disease resulting from increased use of fluorescent lighting as a climate change mitigation strategy. American Journal of Public Health, 101(12), 2222–2225.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the students of WSU101 course for their assistance in survey and secondary data collection. This research was supported by the Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Research University Individual (RUI) Grant with account number 1001/PCGSS/816265.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ng, T.F., Ahmad Shabudin, A.F., Hassan, M.S., Muslim, M., Ibrahim, K. (2017). Energy Consumption in Student Hostels of Universiti Sains Malaysia: Energy Audit and Energy Efficiency Awareness. In: Leal Filho, W., Mifsud, M., Shiel, C., Pretorius, R. (eds) Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47895-1_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47895-1_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47894-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47895-1
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)