Student Conference on Research and Development (SCOReD) 2003 Proceedings, Putrajaya, Malaysia

Previous Software

Software Development for Energy Auditing Practice

Proposed Software

Azimah Omm, Norman,Mariun and Mohd Amran Mohd Radzi Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia 43400 UFM Serdang, Selangor,:Malaysia

email: amranmr@ena.uDm.edu.my

transfer in the building was developed by foreign company that more consider with their

Abstruct- This paper presents the development of the software to calculate the energy usage. This software can be operated as an expert system Basic architechre

Table 1, The differences between previous and current software

transfer in the building is firstty developed in Malaysia and suitable with Malaysia

of the expert system contains -knowledge base (database), inference engine (decision), graphical user interface (GUI), user and output (energy audit report). Mainly, this software was developed by using Microsoft Visual Basic as a programming language tools that can build the GUI. After testing it with

-previous and present collected energy data, this software can display the energy audit report. It presents total amount of energy usage in kWhiday, kWh/month and total energy cost in RM.

energy usage is done for the clectrical and air-conditioning system. I. INTRODUCTION

is done for three types ofemer, usage such as electrical. air- conditioning and building envelope system.

In developing the software, a study and survey have been done to find the same software that already available in todays market. There are several already software on energy auditing practice such as:

1. ENERGEX An Expert System for

2. TEAM SigmaTM 121 3. Z-PowerTM [3] 4. 5. Building Loads Analysis and Systems

Determining Industrial Energy Efficiency [ 11

DOE-2 (version DOE 2.1) [4]

Themodpanics (BLAST) [4]

This paper will present the software development for energy auditing practice. Some intelligent elements will be included in order have this software as an expert system. Mainly, the development of GUI and programming language was carried by using Microsoft Visual Basic. There is a little difference between the previous and proposed software as listed in Table 1.

U. METHODOLOGY

Figure 1 shows the architechire of the software development. Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed by using Microsoft Visual Basic. The main purpose of having GUI was to show and to load all the related information taken fiom the energy audit process. It was the platform for the user to have brief information and guideline in order to enter the related values taken from the site.

environment. I environment. The standard values (in I The standard values (in I database) used in the energy database) used in the energy calculation is taken from other I calculation is taken from countries standard. I Malaysia standard. Mostly lhe calculation of I The calculation of energy usage

The interface was developed through several forms that contain list energy data description, types of equipment and some graphical elements.

Inference Engine

(Decision)

Knowledge-Base

(Database)

Fig. 1. Architecture of software development.

The user is the energy auditor or customer that win use this software to calculate energy consumed by each type of ioads. The user can interact with the software through deveIoped GUI.

In order to implement calculations and other mathematical operations, inference engine was developed as part of the software. It contains formula to calculate the total energy used by some types of energy conservation measures. Then, i t can make decision whether the calculation is TRUE or FALSE after running the program.

420 0-7803-8 173-4/03/$17.00 02003 IEEE.

Database is the main part of this s o k a r e development. Without the database, it will become difficult for the user to interact with GUI. Through Visual Basic, it will support both development processes, GUI and database system Of course there are a few types of database that can be covered in Visual Basic such as Microsoft Access and the other database formats include SQL Server, Oracle, Paradox and DB2. However, for this software, Microsoft Access database format was used because of its simplicity and easiness. This database will become the knowledge-base system of the software. The system contains all related knowledge of energy audit and energy management such as the standard value, coefficient and rating of . energy to calculate difference types of energy usage. The standard value and rating was referred to ASHRAE Fundamental Handbook, IES, IEEE (MG-1-12.53), Canadian Test Standard CSA C340, Advanced Lighting Guidelines and National Appliance Energy Conservation.

The last stage is the development of tools embedded in the software which can implement the .execution of Energy Audit Report. This report will be produced after final calculation of energy usage is made. The report contains total energy usage in kWhlday, kWh/month and total energy cost (RM). Finally, the user can print this report to be used in further analyzing and then propose some recommendations.

111. RESULT A$ID DISCUSSION

The din task of the development of energy auditing software is to buifd the GUI. The GUI really helped the user to. interact with the actual system of the software. Therefore, the next explanation ivill be focused on several GUIs that were developed in this software. Figure 2 is the Main GUI of this software. It displays three types of energy consumption such as the Electrical System, Air-conditioning System and Building Envelope. After the user selects the desired button, this software will guide the user to do the energy calculation.

In this GUI, there are also a push button called Energy Consumption, Help and Exit. For the user who wants to h o w more about the types of energy consumption, the Energy Consumption button can be selected. Then, for the new user whois not really familiar with th is software, the Help button can be selected. The Help GUI will guide the user to use and run the program properly.

Fig. 2. Main GUI

Figure 3 is the Electrical System GUI. This GUI will appear after the user select the optional button of electrical system in the GUI of Figure 2. In this GUI, the user must select three scope of ekctrical system as listed. Therefore, finally the user will get the total amount of energy used by that system.

Fig. 3. Elechical System GUI

After the user has entered the required data of the energy consumption and then running the program, this sobare will display an Energy Audit Report. It contains the value of total kWh/day, total kWWmonth and total energy cost. Figure 4 shows the Final Result GUI, which display the Energy Audit Report. After the development of the software, it should be tested with several energy data that can he obtained from residential or commercial building. For this work, some data on the fourth floor of the Administration Building, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia was collected.

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Fig. 4. Final Result GUI

Fig. 5. Print out the Energy Audit Report

Firstly, to calculate the total energy produced by .the lighting system, the user must choose the types of lamp installed in the existing system. Figure 6 shows the Types of Lamp GUI that required the user to select the lamp and its power rating such as Fluorescent Lamp TLD/36W 950 with power rating 36W.

The user can choose the types of lamp from the database as shown in Figure 7. By clicking the command button OK in this GUI, the data will be transferred into the display textbox of the Types of Lamp GUI as shown in Figure 6. Now, this GUI will display the selected lamp and its power rating.

The second step of calculating energy used by this lamp is to enter the operation data of the lamp such as the Quantity of lamp, Operating hours and No. of days working. Figure 8 shows the Lamp Operation GUI. For example, the user can enter the required data such as Quantity of lamp i s 26; Operating hours is 11 hours and the No. of days working i s 30 days.

Fig. 6. Types of Lamp GUI

Fig. 7. Database of the lamp

Next, you must sntar the required data of the tamp opsrrtlon as b d w :

I

Fig. 8. Lamp Operation GUI

The third step is to choose the correct rating of the energy price provided by the TNB. The next GUI, Figure 9 is the database of the Energy Price. After the user clicks OK button in the TNB Tariff Rates GUI, the energy price per kWh appeared is RMkWh 0.288. Then, to know the tota1 kWh produce by the selected lamp, the user must click the Calculate button in Figure 10.

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Finally, Figure 11 shows the Result CUI that displays the value of total kWh/day i s equal to 10.30, total kWh/month is equal to 308.88 and total energy cost is equal to RM 88.96 ,

Fig. 9. Database of the energy price

I . . 1

Fig. 10. Energy Price GUI

Fig. 11. Result GUI

XV. CONCLUSION

The software to be used in energy auditing practice has been successfdly developed by using Microsoft Visual Basic as it provides graphical programming language. The Graphical User Interface (GUI), which is the main interface between the user and the software system, has also been successfully developed.

This software can calculate exactly the total amount of energy used by certain types of energy usage. Besides that, the development o f this software will be operated as Expert System. Therefore, it will reduce the error of calculation as all of the energy audit and energy management data can be stored in the database (knowledge-base system). The development of the database used the simple method provided by Microsoft Access.

Finally, the software is tested to make sure it can calculate the total energy usage and the produce Energy Audit Report. The data is collected from Administration Building of Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia. After the required data was entered, this software can successfully produce the total energy used per day, per month and total energy cost in RM.

V. REFERENCES

[ l ] ENERGEX: An Expert System for Determining Industrial Energy Efficiency, littu://www.ru-ce. wvu.edulnewsieneraex.ht~iil

[2] Object Matter Customer Spotlight: Team Sigma From The Energy Auditing Agency, fIle://lA~/E~ierp~lOb~ectmatter

[3] Z-Power Capabilities Guide, ZPowerm Utility Management & Accounting Software, 1999.

[4] M. Krarti, Energy Audit of Building Systems An Engineering Approach, CRC Press LLC, 2000

[SI Nieto, Visual Basic 6 Row To Program Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, 1999.

[6] Beynon-Davies, Expert Database Systems A Gentle Introduction Mc. Graw Hill, 1991.

[7] L. Medsker and f . Liebowitz, Design and Development of Expert Systems and NeuraI Networks: MacMillan Publishing Company 1993

[8] W.J. Kennedy, W.C. Tuner and B.L. Capehart, Guide to Energy Management, The Fairmont Press, Inc., 1994.

[SI A. Thumann, R. Hosdie, Energy Management Guide For Government Buildings, the Fairmont Press, Inc., 1994.

[ I O ] Guidelines For Energy Efficiency In Buildings, Kementerian Tenaga, Telekom dan Pos Malaysia, 1989.

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