An Empirical Assessment to Express the Variability of Buildings' Energy Consumption

Abstract

This paper presents the key findings of a study conducted in Greek hotels. Energy audits were carried out in 43 cases across Greece. The different technical characteristics of each building have a different effect in the total final energy consumption. The findings of this research showed the variable that is the most statistically significant among the selected sample to be used for analyzing further the data. This study showed that this process is necessary to be used as a preliminary step in any type of energy forecasting, since it would define the most appropriate expression to be used for improving the building’s energy performance and reducing their energy consumption. The statistical analysis is very important at that stage since energy is expressed differently, such as kWh/m2 or kWh/person, or kWh. In this particular research, the statistical analysis defines the expression that is more statistically valid to be used in further analysis of the energy data, providing also significant literature about the importance and role of statistical tests.