Creative Commons

This dissertation has been written as part of the MSc in Energy systems at the International Hellenic University. Due to the rising concerns for the impact of the people’s activities on the environment, it has become more urgent than ever, to take action towards a more sustainable development, meaning less use of fossil fuels, more use of renewable sources of energy, management of the energy demand and improvement of the system’s efficiency, in order to save energy. Major consumers of the world’s total energy are the buildings. At the present dissertation the subject is the educational buildings, which as described later on, have an important footprint both to the society’s well-being and the energy balance, too. The interest on studying their energy performance has motivated my supervisor and me, to choose this area for my dissertation topic. In the first chapter an overview of the available literature is included, discussing several issues, related to educational buildings. Afterwards, different criteria of categorizing schools are presented. In the last two chapters, the dissertation becomes more practical, presenting a real case elementary school in the city of Thessaloniki with all its characteristics that could affect its energy performance and then the building is simulated and brings out some relative results. Judging from them, some ESM are presented that would mitigate the factors that deteriorate the energy efficiency. The last chapter, followed by the conclusions, refers to the simulation results of the various scenarios. The choice of the best possible solution is made, according to the beneficial impact on the energy consumption and to the financial evaluation. For their help and support during the various stages of this effort, I would like to thank my supervisor Professor Agis Papadopoulos and his PhD student Christina Constantinidou. Also, I would like to express my thanks to my friend Socrates Tselepis and Mr Panagiotis Dalpas, lighting consultant of Bright Special Lighting S.A.