Intoduction

The present draft report deals with the analysis and the preliminary elaboration of the data and information collected during the audit on ELECGALAPAGOS S.A. (EEPG) office building.
Since December 2003 ECOSAGE has started the monitoring of the electric consumption of the EEPG building. The audit data and the first short term monitoring results permitted to determine the monthly and yearly building consumption, to compare them with the billed yearly consumption and to estimate the percentage weight of each systems or appliance in the total consumption.

Architectural general description

The Elecgalapagos (EEPG) office is located in Puerto Baquerizo, a village of San Cristobal island located in the Galapagos Archipelago, Equador . The geographical coordinates of the site are : Latitude : 0.4 ° South, Longitude : 90° West. The area of the site where is located the building is 561 m2. The building is placed in the Avenida Espanola a secondary street with not much traffic (Fig.1 of the attached .doc file photos_EEPG). It is a two storied building with a semi-elliptical shape and its main facade (facade 1) is exposed to North (Fig.2). Figure 2 shows also the cylindrical stair-well with vertical side windows. The building is surrounded by few less high edifices (fig.3).
The main entrance of the building consisting of a glazed door is close the external small garden about 4 m2 large (Fig. 4 and fig. 5 ). On the ground floor of the building, close the main entrance, there is the commercial area (fig. 6) having two different counters for the public . On the right side there are the technical area with a surface of 34m2 (Fig. 7) and the office of the technical manager 14 m2 large.
A stair with vertical side windows in the stair-well for day-lighting purposes leads to the second floor of the building (fig.8) where several offices are located along a 12 m long corridor (Fig. 9). The corridor of the second floor divides the Internal Audit Department having a surface of 9 m2 from the legal and financial office 27 m2 large. Other offices of the second floor are the secretary department (surface : 10m2) , a meeting room (surface :41 m2) and the General Manager room with a surface of 47m2 (see fig. 10). By the internal stair it is possible to reach also the roof of the building which is terraced with a surface of about 183 m2 (Fig. 11). The top of the stair-well is also equipped with side windows and a glazed dome for daylight purposes (Fig.12).
The area of each building floor is 341 m2 , so that the total gross area of the building (total area of all of the building floors)is about 682 m2.

General information about the building are reported in table 1 and in the task/report : INST 103 Audit, attached file: Copia_de_inputcheckl_autoconsumo

Construction year 1998
Orientation of main entrance North
Site area, m˛ 561 Total lot area
Area of foundations,m˛ 341 area of typical floor
Green Areas, m˛ 4
Height of typical floor, m 6
Number of floors 2 ground floor included.
Number of basement floors 0
Number of office rooms 10
Number of staircases 4
Gross floor area, m˛ 682 Total area of the floors
Heated floor area, m˛ 0
Conditioned area, m˛ 150 Conditioned area (in 5 office rooms + meeting room)

Table 1

Construction

The building have a reinforced concrete structure. The external walls have not thermal insulation material and consist of perforated concrete blocks 13 cm thick with an external finishing light coloured . The U-value of the external walls is in the range of 3-3.5 W/m2 °C.
The floor is covered with marble tiles on concrete slab and also the steps of the stair are covered with tiles.
All of the building windows are equipped with polycrome single pane with internal shading devices (fig. 13). Internal vertical louver blinds consisting of adjustable textile white slats are installed in all of the building windows (Fig. 14).
The U-value of the single pane windows with aluminium frame is about 5 W/m2 °C including frame, while the typical U-value of the double pane windows with aluminium frame is 3 W/m2 °C.
The roof of the building consists of concrete structure.
Details on the building construction can be find on the Task/report : INST 103 Audit, attached file: Copia_de_inputcheckl_autoconsumo

HVAC system

In San Cristobal the climate is humid with a relative humidity ranging in between 75 % - 80% all over in the year. In summertime it needs ventilation inside the interior spaces for removing moisture which causes an additional cooling load.
In the Elecgalapagos building, the cooling systems and fans for ventilation are used during the office hours of the warmer season (from December to May). In the building there are 3 ceiling fans, one of them is shown in figure 15. The electric power absorbed by a single fan can be estimated in 50-70 W. In the building there are also 7 air conditioning units normally in operation from December to May. 5 of them are Panasonic units, model CW XC 180 BP (see Fig. 16) and are installed in the first and second floor of the South facade of the building as shown in fig.18. They are old enbloc units (not current split models as shown in Fig.18) and according to the technical specifications reported in fig. 17 their efficiency is low ( cooling capacity = 5.2 kW, Absorbed power = 2.18 kWe, COP 2,385).
The remaining 2 air conditioning units are Lennox components (see figg.15-19-20), model 10ACB24-11P. According to the technical specification reported in fig.21 and on the basis of the information gained by the audit, this Lennox model could have a cooling capacity of 6.65 kW, an electrical power of approximately 3.2 kWe (220 V * 14.6 A* cos fi) and a C.O.P. ( Cooling Capacity/ Electr. Power) of approximately 2.08. Even this air conditioning model is an old component with poor efficiency. Out of the 2 Lennox air conditioning, only the unit located in the meeting room works, the second one installed in the financial and legal office does not work. Table 2 reports the cooling power relevant to the different air conditioning units

Installed cooling power (thermal), kW 32.6
Installed electrical cooling power, kWe 14.1
10.9 kWe (5 Panasonic air Cond. units ), 3.2 kWe (1 Lennox air conditioning unit)

Table 2

Lighting systems

The lighting in the interior of the buildings is provided with two kind of low consumption lighting systems: tube fluorescent inside diffusing glass ceiling bowl (Fig. 22) and compact fluorescent luminaries (Fig. 15). This kind of glass ceiling bowl by diffusing the light in all the directions does not fit with the need of the office work due to the fact that does not focus the light on the visual task of the work desk. Only the few external lighting systems are standard incandescent lamps. The complete list of lighting typologies used in the offices, their number, electric power and locations are reported in table 3.

Type of existing lamps N° P (W) Daily Use (h)

1: standard incandescent, 3 60 1

2: efficient incandescent,

3: tube fluorescent, 36 40 13

4: compact fluorescent, 10 25 13

5: discharge,

6:other:
low consumption luminaires 2 20 8

Table 3

Hot water systems

A low efficiency boiler for hot water production in the offices is reported , but its consumption is not reported. It is not yet clear whether sanitary hot water is needed in the building.

Computers and other office equipment

In the two floors of the building are distributed 15 computers, 12 printers, 2 fax systems, type-writer, scanner and a copy-machine. Moreover the offices are equipped with a radio for communications , radio and television set. The absorbed powers and the daily use of the different office equipment are reported in Task/report : INST 103 Audit, attached file: Copia_de_inputcheckl_autoconsumo, table 9
Details on the daily use of all the electric appliances used in the building can be find in the same table of the same above mentioned task/report.

Electric energy consumption

ELECGALAPAGOS S.A. (EEPG) is classified as a self-user. The billed electric consumption referred to the period from January 2002 to July 2003 is reported in table 4.
Table 4 shows that the building electric consumption are strongly affected by the operation of the cooling systems: the monthly average consumption in the warm period is about 3100 - 3300 kWh against a monthly average consumption of 1840 kWh of the cooler months.
The data reported in table 4, even though not statistically complete, provide also a rough average indication on the daily consumption of the EEPG building, 157-164 kWh in summer and 92 kWh in winter.
It is possible to understand something more about the energy consumption and the load profile by analysing the first ECOSAGE monitoring data taken in the EEPG building.
Fig. 23 (see attached .doc file "photos_EEPG") shows the load profiles of the EEPG administrative office in two typical working days of the beginning of the San Cristobal summer (December, 16 - December , 17 2003).
The total energy consumption from 07:30 to 23:30 in these two days accounts for about 174 kWh as it has been shown in the fig. 24 (see the last two histograms of the fig.24).
The two days monitoring data show that during the period of approximately 11 hours (07:30 a.m. -18:30 p.m.) when the majority of the employers work inside the office the average load is 13.2 kW ( December 16) - 13.6 kW (December 17).
The load profile is nearly constant in the morning working hours until the lunch break (13:00-14:00) when a drop occurs, in the afternoon from 15:00 to 16:00 the load reaches a maximum and then decreases when the employers leave the office (18:00-18:30).
The histograms of fig.24 show also the differences in the daily energy consumption due to the use or not use of the air conditioning systems.
To this purpose let's consider the couples of days December 10-11 and December 16-17 characterised by very different energy consumption : 82 - 97 kWh against 174 kWh. These differences can be explained by considering the difference in the outdoor temperatures (figg. 25-28 ) which causes a strong use of the air conditioning units in the days December 16, 17. The average daily outdoor temperatures on December 16 and 17 were about 26°C with a peak higher than 27 °C. On December 10, 11 the average outdoor temperatures were lower with peaks of 25 °C - 26° C.
In the days December, 10 - 11 the daily trend of the interior temperatures follows the natural trend of the external temperature and solar radiation, that means a very limited use of the air conditioning units (see figg.29-30). In the days December, 16 - 17 the natural sinusoid trend of the internal temperature does not occur due to the action of the air conditioning units forcing the air temperature in the range 25-26.5 °C (see figg. 31-32).

All the information collected during the audit and related to the energy consumption have been reported in tables 2, 3, 4 and 9. Table 5 summarises the results of the data analysis.
The following assumptions have been done to carry out the data analysis:
For each of the 5 Panasonic air conditioning units the hourly reported consumption is 2,18 kWh. These A.C.U. have been supposed to be in operation from December to May (6 months) for 10 hours per day and 20 days per month. The only operating Lennox A.C.U. has a hourly consumption of 3.2 kWh. This Lennox unit located in the meeting room is normally used from December to May only for the meetings (about 40hours for month).
Moreover we have considered that in the office rooms ventilation fans work for 12 hours per day, 20 days per months over the 6 warmer months. As daily use of lighting, computers, fax, printers and other office equipment has been considered the number of hours declared by the EEPG personnel and reported in Task/report : INST 103 Audit, attached file: Copia_de_inputcheckl_autoconsumo, table 9

Year Month Elec.Cons.
kWh
2002 1 2707
2002 2 3480
2002 3 3270
2002 4 3069
2002 5 3134 3132 Average Summer
2002 6 2589
2002 7 2075
2002 8 1689
2002 9 1771
2002 10 1699 1838 Average Winter
2002 11 1955
2002 12 2877 30315 Total 2002
2003 1 2273
2003 2 4077
2003 3 4273
2003 4 3152
2003 5 3084 3289 Average Summer
2003 6 2395
2003 7 1861 51430 Total 2002 - 2003

Table 4 : ECGP billed consumption data

Appliances Daily cons. Monthly Cons. Yearly cons. %
kWh kWh kWh
Lamps
Std. Incand. 0.18 3.6 43.2
Tube fluoresc. 17.28 345.6 4147
Comp.fluores. 3 60 720
Other lamps 0.48
Total lamps 20.94 418.8 5025.6 16.7
Radio 0.21 4.16 49.92
Radio commun. 4.32 86.4 1036.8
Computer 20.25 405 4860
Printer 11.52 230.4 2764.8
Fax 4.03 80.64 967.68
Copy machine 2.25 45.08 540.96
Clock 0.072 1.44 17.28
Total office syst. 42.656 853.12 10237.4 34.1
Dom. Refrigerat. 1.92 57.6 691.2 2.33
Ventilation Fan 1.8 36 216
A.C.U Panasonic 109 2180 13080
A.C.U. Lennox 6.4 128 768
Total HVAC 117.2 2344 10064 46.9
Gran total 182.72 3673.52 30018.24 100

Table 5: Estimated EEPG consumption by the audit data

The following comments and consideration arise from the results reported in table 5 :
1) The estimated monthly consumption done on the basis of the audit data are referred to a warmest months of the summer. The estimated monthly consumption is quite consistent with the billed monthly consumption of the warmest period as reported in table 4(3673 kWh against 3480 kWh billed in February 2002, or 3270 kWh billed in March 2002 ). The estimated summer daily consumption is about 183 kWh against 174 kWh measured during the monitoring in December 16,17 2003. A very good agreement has been found between the yearly estimation (30018 kWh) and the 2002 energy bill (30315 kWh). The contribution of the air conditioning to the yearly building consumption has been considered only for six months, but a little percent can be considered also in the other part of the year.
The consumption due to the air conditioning can be considered the variable part of the energy bill, while the other items (consumption for lighting, for office equipment and food refrigeration) can be assumed as the basic part. In the coldest months (from August to October), where air conditioning is switch off , the daily consumption ranges between 80 - 90 kWh (see table 4 and fig.24: days December10 and 11 ). In July and November there is an increase in the consumption up to 100-105 kWh/day, probably due to a partial use of the HVAC systems. The impact of the air conditioning use in the daily energy consumption of the ECGP building is shown in fig. 33. Table 5 shows also that the air conditioning systems account for about 47 % of the EEPG building yearly consumption.
2) Lighting systems account for about the 17 % of the building yearly consumption. All the lamps installed in the offices are fluorescent low consumption lamps mounted inside all direction diffusing glass ceiling bowls. It would be better to replace the existing glass ceiling bowls with directional equipment able to focus the light on the visual task of the work desks. The replacement of the low efficiency incandescent lamps in the external area with high efficiency fluorescent compact lamps would permit a very little energy saving in the lighting consumption .
3) The only significant energy saving could be achieved by replacing the existing old air conditioning units which account for about 47 % of the yearly total consumption with new and more efficient split units (two blocs machines ) (about + 25% in C.O.P.). The substitution with more efficient air conditioning systems can reduce the total consumption of more than 10 %.
4) The office equipment like computers, copy machines fax, printers are energy consuming, they account for 34 % of the total yearly building consumption.

Conclusion

On end of September 2003 an energy audit has been performed on the Elecgalapagos offices in San Cristobal of Galapagos Islands - Equador
The audit has been executed by applying a methodology developed in the frame of the ALTENER U.E. project : XENIOS : Development of an Audit Tool for the sustainable refurbishment of hotels
By means of the data and information collected during the audit and by the first results of the monitoring performed by ECOSAGE on the building a preliminary analysis of the structure of the energy consumption has been done.
The estimation of the monthly and yearly consumption are in acceptable agreement with the billed consumption provided by the local Electric Utility and with the first monitoring results.
In offices lighting systems account for about 17 % of the building total yearly consumption. The percentage weight of the lighting in the total building consumption is not high due to the fact that in the office rooms the totality of the luminaires have fluorescent lamps.
In the office rooms it would be advisable to replace the existing glass ceiling bowls with directional equipment able to focus the light on the visual task of the work desks.
Due the fact that the air conditioning accounts for about 47 % of the building energy consumption a strong energy saving can be obtained by replacing the existing old air conditioning units with new split units having a C.O.P. (Coefficient of performance) of about 30% higher than the old ones.
The office equipment like computers, copy machines, fax, printers are energy consuming, they account for 34 % of the total yearly building consumption.
Thermal Solar Collectors can be installed on the roof for supplying sanitary hot water but it is not yet known whether sanitary hot water is needed in the building.
At present data are not available on sanitary hot water energy consumption even if a boiler has been reported in the audit format sheets.
The audit confirmed that Elecgalapagos building can be classified as a high level energy consuming user according to San Cristobal standards. Due to the importance of EEPG building as the site of the electric energy utility of the island, very likely RUE & RES interventions and a higher level of monitoring will be executed in this building.