A study on energy efficiency improvement opportunities for plug loads in buildings in the equatorial region

The small plug loads in the tropical buildings are among the fastest growing sources of energy use. Yet, there are comparatively fewer studies that were focused on the energy efficiency improvement potentials of the office equipment due to its elusive, more diversified and sophisticated nature. This objective of this study is to identify the opportunity for energy efficiency improvement of the frequently used office equipment in a commercial building in Malaysia, by focusing on the occupant behaviour and software power management features. The outcomes show that about 19% of the total energy demand can be reduced if the office equipment not in use are turned off, unplugged or disconnected. This also led to a significant reduction in greenhouse gases emission. This finding is particularly important for good energy demand management, as more and more modern electric appliances are introduced into the local commercial buildings which are contributing to the increase in energy consumption and subsequently, the electric bill. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license