Date of Graduation
12-2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Degree Level
Undergraduate
Department
Mechanical Engineering
Advisor/Mentor
Nutter, Darin
Committee Member/Reader
Roe, Larry
Abstract
Energy consumption has increased considerably in the last fifty years as population rises. At the same time, design and efficiency of all equipment used in commercial buildings have changed as well. The purpose of this thesis is to explain how HVAC systems have changed and how they have affected energy consumption. Entities like the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) facilitate the data-gathering process by offering databases of energy information from actual monthly energy bills to promote public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment. Moreover, in order to have a better understanding of the overall energy consumption of commercial buildings, eight different climate zones and five building types were chosen from the DOE commercial reference buildings model. After pairing up buildings and zones for specific time frames the results show that the energy efficiency in all systems have improved significantly, therefore, decreasing the overall use of energy.
Citation
Arroyo, M. M. (2015). A Look at Commercial Building Energy Use And Energy Efficiency Technologies From 1980 to Present. Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/meeguht/49