Energy-Based University Timetabling Model as a Function of Class, Climate, and Building Conditions Subject to Educational Constraints

This study investigates the effects of ACH, students’ number, and wall thickness, as well as different semester starting dates and energy consumption reduction. The optimal academic timetabling for reducing energy consumption considers curricula’s rules for taking courses, departments’ specific instructions, existing classes, professors’ priorities, and other related factors. This research uses simulation and demand-side management models to determine the energy consumption of holding classes during a timeslot. They can quantify the factors’ effects on energy use. ACH is between 1.5 and 12, wall thickness is up to 1.6 of its normal value, and students are 10 to 40. There are three starting dates for the semester: conventional time, one-week and two-week earlier. As long as there is no need to change cooling/heating systems, the factors’ impacts on each timeslot from the energy reduction perspective when implementing optimal timetabling are investigated. The developed model revealed that the four factors do not change classes’ priorities from the energy viewpoint but noticeably affect energy use reduction. The optimal scheduling by keeping the semester’s starting date and classes’ operational conditions decreases energy consumption between 11.5 and 24.5 %. The results show that the semester’s early start has a substantial influence on energy consumption reduction in way that if the operational conditions are the same and classes begin two weeks earlier, energy consumption will be reduced between these two ranges: 36.7 - 52.2 % and 49.4 - 63.9 %.