Assessment of Energy Conservation Measures in the design of postgraduate Students' Hostel in Nigeria Universities in Conference proceedings of the school of Environmental technology International Conference

Abstract

The environment today is facing challenges as a result of urbanization and has led to the depletion of available resources such as; water, land, air and energy which has in turn changed into an artificial living environment. The rate of energy being consumed in student hostels is daily on the increase with the advancement in technology and student enrolment. The study identified and assessed the designs of postgraduate student hostel buildings, focusing mainly on the energy conservation design measures that were adopted in the designs. The survey adopted a qualitative research method where a scheduled checklist was used to collect data from the selected case studies. Findings from the survey suggests that, mostly owing to trending technologies in design and maintenance, most postgraduate student hostel designs have shaded away from the use of passive design measures and are now focused on achieving aesthetics. The study concludes that passive design measures have not been efficiently utilized in the designs of most postgraduate hostels. As such, the incorporation of energy conservation measures should be made mandatory at design level prior to the approval of any student hostel building plan. This can further reduce the demand for mechanical power which at the moment is inadequate to attain thermal comfort of the occupants.