Project Evaluation

Evaluation of Aims and Objectives:

Overall, I think the final report does a good job at meeting the original aims and objectives set out in
the Project Feasibility Study. The scope of the project that was initially drawn out in the Feasibility
Study was also met completely.

The main aim of the report was to compare the energy consumption of the university, as a whole, and
then specific buildings on campus and explain any differences that may have been found. This idea
was looked at with great depth throughout the report and each building category has its own section
within the reports discussion section and literature review. Therefore, plenty of literature was
analysed, along with data on the university itself, to produce an informative report. It was vital that
this aim was accomplished effectively, as it was the main aim of the paper, and I am very confident
that this aim was achieved.

An important aim that was outlined in the early stages of the report was to understand hoe energy
consumption changed over the different periods of time during the COVID-19 pandemic. This meant
not only looking at data from lockdown periods, but also non-lockdown periods. The non-lockdown
periods analysed included pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods. I think this objective was
achieved well throughout the report, but mainly through the university baseline data section of the
report. Here, pre-pandemic data from 2019 was showcased and compared with data from the
lockdown periods, to help the reader gain an understanding of severe impact of the COVID-19
lockdowns. This objective, however, could have definitely been achieved more successfully if more
data on 2019 was included throughout the report. Many of the meters available on the DCS database
did not have the required data for 2019 and so comparison with pre-pandemic data is only discussed
in a few of the sections throughout the main body of report.
Another facet of this particular objective was to also highlight the different ways in which energy
consumption recovered post-pandemic in all the different building categories. For this, data from late
2021 to the end of 2022 was analysed. I believe this part of the objective was achieved far more
successfully, with relevant data being available for all the meters that were looked at.

Moreover, another aim that was outlined was to look at the different forms of energy consumption on
the university campus. I believe that this aim was also achieved well, with the main results and
discussion section of the report being split into two sections. One section focused on the electrical
energy consumption at the university, whilst the second focused on the gas and heat consumption.
Electrical energy was also analysed through the scope of energy consumption via lighting. This aided
in pinpointing what process and systems in a building were the most significant contributors to
electrical energy consumption.

One of the aims for the project that was identified as a stretch target in the Project Feasibility Study
was to propose ideas on how the university could reduce energy consumption in specific buildings.
This aim was looked at in depth in the literature review for the report, with many papers in this similar
field going into great detail about how consumption could have been reduced in their own case
studies. This research was used for comparison with my own finding, and suggestions of
improvements made in other papers were applied to the results of the University of Warwick
buildings in order to reduce the energy consumption. This aim was discussed briefly in the
conclusions and recommendations section of the final report but could have been more
comprehensively analysed throughout the main body of the report if more time was permitted to
carrying out the project.

Another aim that was set out in the Project Feasibility Study was to look at data provided by the South
Warwickshire NHS Trust for Warwick Hospital and compare it to the data for the University of
Warwick. Though this was originally planned, I did not end up looking into the data of Warwick
Hospital as I was unable to gain access to its database. Regardless of this, a great deal of data was
obtained through reading literature on the topic and solid conclusions about energy consumption
during the lockdown periods are still attained. Not having access to particular sets of data, such as
Warwick Hospital’s, did not hinder the progress of the report and the main objective of comparing the
university’s data on energy consumption to other buildings, was still achieved.

Evaluation of Project Content:

I believe that I was able to carry out a comprehensive study on the university’s energy consumption
throughout the lockdown periods, however there are a few ideas that I was unbale to execute
completely or effectively enough. Given more time to research with a wider scope and to analyse
more data, a better understanding of university’s consumption can be attained.

Throughout the results and discussion section for the university’s own data, points were only made
about the energy consumption of buildings on a monthly basis. The idea of looking at energy on a
daily basis was discussed and researched in the literature review, however data for the university was
never analysed on a daily basis. Further conclusion, for heating consumption specifically, about may
have been reached if data for this factor was looked at on a daily, or even hourly basis. Since there are
more people are staying at home in lockdown periods, the demand for heating throughout a 24-hour
period would have been significantly altered. This would have provided additional data, which could
have proved important, when looking at ways to reduce base heating loads. Though this is the case, I
believe solid conclusions on heat consumption of university buildings were still achieved by looking
at consumption on a monthly basis.

Furthermore, more data for the university could have been looked at for the gas and heat consumption
section of the report. I feel that I was slightly rushed for time towards the end of the project, when
trying to put all the final pieces together, and subsequently, this section of the report is not as
extensive as the section on electrical energy consumption. If more time was permitted, I believe I
would have been able to obtain clearer data from the DCS database that would have led to clearer
conclusions on how gas and heat consumption was impacted at the university.

Evaluation of Time Management & Work Ethic:

In order to maintain good time management throughout the project time period, I created a Gantt
chart, as part of the Project Feasibility Study, in order to keep track of progress. The first Gantt Chart
which I produced was relatively brief with a few key issues that had to be seen to throughout the
project timeline. However, over the Christmas break I decided to update the original Gantt Chart in
order to include more factors into the timeline as well as adjust for the early completion of certain
tasks.
When updating the Gantt chart, I found that research for the topic had been collected in a much
shorter period of time than first expected. This was mainly due to the fact that there was plenty of
literature around the topic that was readily available; I found that it was not difficult to obtain the
relevant information for this paper. This presented me more time to focus on the analysis of data for
the report and allowed me to submit drafts for several different sections of the final report. These were
then returned back to me with notes, allowing me to further improve my analysis and discussion of
the topic.

I did find, however, that work on the project slowed down significantly during the Christmas break. I
had exams once the term started again in January, so the majority of time over the break was spent
revising and working towards those exams. Small sections of research for the literature review and
alterations to the original Gantt chart were the only pieces of work done towards the project during
this time. I believe if that I had a better balance between revision and work for the project, I would
have been less likely to fall behind during the latter stages of project.

Also, I organised weekly meetings with my project supervisor which ensured I was headed in the right
direction with the report. The meeting towards the beginning of the project aided me in developing
and initial ideas I had for the content of the report. These meetings were also used to analyse initial
drafts of the report and make necessary adjustments.
Cost-Benefit Analysis:

There was no budget or expenditure for this project. However, the conclusions reached in the project
could prove very beneficial for the university. Understanding the ways in which energy is consumed
on the campus and produces ideas of energy saving measures, can aid the university in realising these
concepts and putting them into practice. This way the university can update existing buildings with
these new energy saving measures that can reduce the base load of buildings and decrease the overall
energy consumption of the university. The University of Warwick has also set out plans to introduce a
new building onto the campus every year up until 2030. This would mean that any new buildings can
immediately incorporate these features and improve the efficiency of energy consumption.