A statistical approach for the minimization of energy and maintenance cost for a typical educational facility.

Energy has been a global concern for the past few decades. The respective authorities in Oman, mainly Public Authority for Electricity and Water, have also commenced serious efforts in the same vein. The first and most intuitive start is to manage and minimize energy consumption. Unfortunately, there has not yet been any local official regulations or standards in this regard. Moreover, consumption of energy management is a function of qualitative factors such as personal comfort as well as unpredictable factors such as meteorological situation which broaden the uncertainty margin when energy consumption is forecast. The proposed research aims at improving energy management using a statistical approach and studying frequency of maintenance and its cost given energy usage. In the proposed study, energy usage will be monitored for an in-campus building for an extended period of time. In the field study, energy management and monitoring tools will be used to obtain real-time data on energy using. The gathered data will be correlated to occupancy rates, weather data and maintenance frequency using statistical tools. The study will then suggest an operation protocol targeting minimum operation and maintenance cost while satisfying the energy needs. An economic analysis will be carried out for capitalizing on retrofit modifications on the building in order to reduce energy cost.