Industrial Facilities Overhead Energy Estimation

In this study, two important techniques for estimating the nonprocess energy in industrial and manufacturing buildings were examined. The building energy data for two industrial facilities were collected and analyzed. The building nonprocess energy includes lighting, heating, cooling, and ventilation. The power intensity (W/ft²) for each energy type use was estimated using two methods and then analyzed. This nonprocess energy needs to be clearly defined to allow more quantitative improvements. Previous analysis of industrial energy use often expressed nonprocess energy as a percentage of total energy but without clear values of actual nonprocess energy. This information is a low value since the actual nonprocess energy is then dominated by the dominator which is unspecified. The research in this paper has further contributed to the life cycle assessment of products by estimating nonprocess energy which can then be added to the process energy to obtain a complete energy profile of product manufacturing.