Energy Conservation through Lighting Audit- A Case Study of Hostel Building

The gap between supply and demand of energy is continuously increasing. Increase in energy prices, acute energy shortages and supply gap are the issues of concern and hence efficiency of the supply system and energy conservation measures have gained importance in the recent years. In view of this to understand and analyze the energy utilization for improving efficiency with cost benefit analysis and to reduce the energy consumption, Energy Audit is being considered for the present work. Lighting is an area which provides a major scope to achieve energy efficiency and conservation by incorporation of modern energy efficiency lamps. In this present work lighting Audit of “Malaprabha Basaveshwar Engineering College Ladies Hostel” Bagalkot, Karnataka is considered, mentioning that annual contribution of only lighting loads towards energy consumption is 24.4% of total load. Audit is conducted for lighting loads by walk through survey of all the four buildings of the hostel and power consumption pattern is determined. It is observed that replacing old luminaries, with energy efficient luminaries 50% of total cost of energy can be saved per year with the payback period of 8 to 10 years. Further suggesting that selected rooms of the hostel building receiving less natural light should be taken for renovation considering students comfort. Finally, Energy conservation Measures (ECM's) are recommended to reduce the energy consumption by light loads. The outcome of the present work will help in reducing the energy costs of hostel and further improvements in the energy conservation can be done by performing Energy Audit of the hostel considering different types of load and also present study model can be recommended to similar hostel buildings that will help in the energy conservation across the country.