Investigating the adaptability of existing building energy rating systems to sri lankan residential buildings

Abstract

Energy represents a considerably higher percentage of running cost of a building and also affects the optical and thermal comfort of the occupants. Despite the fact that the investment for buildings is higher than most of those equipment, only developed countries and few developing countries have developed their own energy ratings or certifications for buildings. Nevertheless, energy efficiency in building sector is utmost important as it accounts more than one fifth of annual energy consumption worldwide. Energy efficiency rating system can be considered as a key policy instrument that will assist government to reduce the energy consumption. Energy rating includes the direct benefits such as, energy requirement and CO2 emission reduction; increase the public awareness regarding energy issues; cost reduction for the users and improve the available data for the building. Studying the existing energy rating systems is very much important prior to the development of energy rating system for Sri Lanka. This paper examines 12 existing energy rating systems and analyses the adaptation opportunities for emerging Sri Lankan energy labelling system. The existing rating methodologies including asset and operational rating, parameters used for developing the energy rating and the comparability matrix were compared and discussed in this review.