Energy audit of residential buildings to gain energy efficiency credits for LEED certification

Energy audit is a primary study that identifies energy use among various services and provides opportunities for energy conservation. Energy auditing is an integral part of energy conservation and energy management is also part of conservation. It is an initial study in establishing an energy management programme. This paper reviews the initial attempts to understand the energy consumption patterns in a residential building and to reduce the energy consumptions. A case study is included to investigate the reduction in energy consumption per unit in order to make building energy efficient. A feasibility study is done to check the increase in construction cost to gain energy efficiency credits for LEED certification. Payback calculations are done to understand the Investments required and hence feasibility is confirmed.