Energy audit of office buildings in remote areas of developing countries

Improving access to renewable energy and promoting energy efficiency measures are critical challenges for developing countries, and crucial to tackle climate change. To such aim, this study supports the decarbonization of office buildings in such nations by proposing a methodology for conducting remote energy audits and testing it through the application on a representative case study. In particular, the current European standard for energy audits was modified to meet the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) operational context’s needs; in detail, a data validation phase was added, and two energy modeling tools with two cost configurations were used, simulating different future operating conditions. The proposed innovations were evaluated in various setups, reducing the uncertainty inherent in energy audits conducted remotely. Following the proposed methodology, the audit process was performed on an FAO rural office in central-eastern Africa solely powered by a diesel generator. Various energy saving measures were tested, with the ideal outcome being a configuration employing improved roof insulation, replacing the electric water heater with a heat pump, and installing a solar hybrid system combined with a new tailored diesel generator. This approach decreases fuel consumption by 87% compared to the baseline scenario, resulting in enhanced environmental and financial benefits.