Correlation of Building Parameters with Energy Reduction

The building sector is the cause of about 36% global energy consumption and 40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A considerable portion of this energy is consumed for the thermal comfort of the building inhabitants. Thermal resistance (R) on building envelop is the most powerful component for reducing energy consumption. Therefore this study aims to estimate the correlations between energy reduction and different design parameters of a building by varying insulation R (W/m
²
.K) values. A case study is carried out for a single story residential house in a climatic zone of Australia to find the effects of insulation on energy reduction with building components. Energy rating software, FirstRate5, was used to simulate energy consumption for different ranges of R values. Hence the obtained energy consumption (MJ/m
²
) and case study house parameters are used as input variables for the correlation analysis using Palisade DecisionTools software, @Risk. The results show that building energy reduction has a very strong correlation (0.92-0.95) with the ceiling, a medium correlation (0.20-.25) and (0.01-0.20) with the wall and floor respectively and weaker correlation (0.01-0.15) for other components. Further, this correlation analysis provides a basis for an energy reduction strategy for buildings.