Understanding the energy consumption and occupancy of a multi-purpose academic building

•Building users have a small influence over the electrical consumption.•The electrical consumption remains high even with decreased occupation.•The BMS does not take into account the room occupancy.•The BMS needs to consider occupancy patterns to achieve energy savings. Building energy use associated with non-domestic buildings accounts for approximately 19% of the total UK CO2 emissions. Energy consumption in a non-domestic building is a complex issue due to a wide variety of uses and energy services and therefore the energy demand of individual buildings need to be understood. A pilot study was undertaken to analyse the relationship between the electrical energy demand profiles and user activities for a university building. To gain insight into how the building is used, operated and managed on a daily basis, an online questionnaire was distributed to staff and students as well as interviews conducted with key management personnel. Analysis was performed on the half-hourly electrical demand data for the case-study building to identify key trends and patterns in energy use. The shape and magnitude of energy demand profiles show a significant trend which does not seem to be strongly connected to occupancy patterns. It was found that the building was mostly controlled by a building management system (BMS) where building users have minimal access to the controls. However, it was interesting to find that the detailed information on the occupancy patterns could help the management team to redesign control strategies for optimum energy performance of the building.