Life cycle cost analysis and energy performance of President's office, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand.

The importance of life cycle cost analysis for administration is to investigate the components and activities which are outstanding engagements making high operational cost. This involves energy efficiency and consumption reduction from occupants in building. The aim of this study is to evaluate the cost of operational performance in administrative buildings of Prince of Songkla University (PSU), Hatyai campus called President's office (PO). It has a 6,988 m2 functional area including executive, administrative, and meeting operations. The highest cost of operation comes from electricity consumption estimated to be about 2,439,047 THB or 69,687 USD. To obtain the approximate energy performance of PO, energy audit was investigated. The primary operational energy was considered in four components;(1) Air-conditioning (AC) to cool the rooms, (2) Lighting to illuminate the rooms, (3) IT devices to process documents and database, and (4) auxiliary appliances to support administration. In particularly, AC system consumes the highest energy. Approximately 75% of the energy consumed in the building is attributed to administrative operations. This study also suggests some solutions that have been recorded to be effective in reducing the energy consumption of administrative building. The energy measures were divided into two different categories, reaching by internal and external factors. The most mutual recommendations were identified as lighting and air conditioning retrofits. Renewable energy is an environmental friendly solution but installation has been proved to cost higher than saving cost. Furthermore, there is still potential for improving energy performance not only by its physical characteristics but also by several significant factors such as occupant's behavioral change, and control of indoor environmental condition. The energy efficiency improvement requires holistic measures for sustainable energy building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]