Investigation of Energy Efficiency in UAE Non-Domestic Buildings

This report investigates the performance gap in energy-efficient, non-domestic buildings in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study aims to identify factors influencing energy efficiency, including occupant behavior, technological strategies, and building design. The research employs a mixed-methods approach, combining cross-sectional surveys of building occupants and designers with experimental computer simulation modeling. The survey design involves questionnaires distributed to functional and executive designers in companies managing DM-certified buildings and to occupants of Green Built-certified buildings. Field measurements will be conducted to assess energy consumption and identify the energy efficiency gap. Statistical analysis and computer simulation will be used to evaluate potential solutions and recommend strategies for minimizing the energy efficiency gap. The research seeks to understand the cultural habits of building users, determine the impact of technological strategies, and establish a framework for integrating user habits with technological advancements to enhance energy efficiency.

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 1
DESIGN FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS
INVESTIGATION OF PERFORMANCE GAP FACTORS OF ENERGY EFFICIENT
BUILDINGS IN UAE
(NONDOMESTIC BUILDINGS)
By (Student Name)
Professor (tutor name)
School (University)
Location
Date

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 2
Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Research approach and methods..................................................................................................3
2.1 Cross-sectional survey design................................................................................................6
2.2 Correlational and experimental study....................................................................................8
2.2.1 Field measurements........................................................................................................9
2.2.2 Method of calculation...................................................................................................10
2.3 Summary..............................................................................................................................10
3. Research phases.........................................................................................................................11
4. Limitations and ethical consideration........................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................15
Appendices....................................................................................................................................18
Appendix 1:...............................................................................................................................18
Appendix 2:...............................................................................................................................20
Appendix 3:...............................................................................................................................22

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 3
1. Introduction
This study evaluates different options in terms of research methods and processes to identify the
most suitable one for this study. As the topic concerns with the factors causing gap in energy
efficiency in the nondomestic buildings in the United Arab Emirates, both socio-cultural and
strategic design factors need to be evaluated to identify the problem and suggest the solution.
Therefore, survey along with experiment would be used for investigating the issue. This study
proposes a research plan to find the causes as well as solutions to the identified issue of gap in
energy efficiency in the Green Built (DM certified) building in UAE.
2. Research approach and methods
This research aims to identify the factors that affect the level of energy efficiency in the
nondomestic buildings in the United Arab Emirates causing a significant gap between the energy
spent and the performance achieved through the consumption of the energy. It is an applied
social psychology research (Thibaut, 2017). It aims to acquire understanding of the (i) habits of
the users of nondomestic buildings affecting their energy efficiency, (ii) technological gaps
contributing to performance gap and (iii) design ideas and strategies that could be recommended
to minimize the gap. To acquire desired knowledge and solution quantitative approach has been
chosen for the study as it would avail numerical result that would quantify the variables, which
would be useful in understanding correlation between them (Bernard, 2017). While a qualitative
study would have ensured rich and in-depth understanding of the determinants of individual
behaviour and their consequences it could not provide a quantifiable relationship between the
independent and the dependent variables (Brannen, 2017).

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 4
Figure 1: Study constructs
(Source: created by student)
Along with the survey of the samples representative of the agents of the companies responsible
for the energy consumption pattern and the consumers of the nondomestic buildings, an
experiment would also be conducted to evaluate the potential recommendations identified
through the analysis of the survey responses and theoretical knowledge (Greenfield and Greener,
2016). While result of the survey would help in providing a generalizable understanding of the
Dependent variable
Energy efficiency
Energy performance
gap
Independent variable
Consumption behavior
Technology
Strategic design
Monitoring system
Mediating variable
Consumpti
on habit
Technological and
robotic strategies
and design
Moderating variable
Consumer’s
age, culture,
knowledge
Technological
and robotic
knowledge

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 5
issue result it is also a preferred research option due to its wide applicability and low cost.
Closed-ended multiple choice questions targeted to investigate the effect of each independent
variables such as consumption behaviour, strategic design, technology and monitoring system on
energy efficiency of the nondomestic buildings of the UAE would help in verifying or refuting
the theories studied in the secondary literature. Studies have claimed that user-centered tactics to
modify the occupant’s behaviour might help in solving the issue of energy efficiency (Lin,
Afshari and Azar, 2018). This theory might be verified and further developed through the
research. On the other hand, experiment in form of the computer simulation modeling would
help in assessing the tactics that could come out as the potential solution as a result of the survey
analysis. Hence this is a quantitative study that aims to use experimental measures to investigate
the factors affecting energy efficiency and provide substantial solutions to the issues identified.
This research would utilize measures such as survey and experiment to a) find a cultural
understanding of the manner in which the occupants behave and how they can adapt to better
strategic practices that could leverage energy efficiency without triggering the consequences like
the performance gap, and b) adopt tactics to present comprehensible outcome in form of building
performance through computer simulation modeling. To elucidate the effectiveness of the
proposed research methods in achievement of research objectives, the objectives are linked with
the proposed methods in the following manner:
1. To identify the social and cultural habits of building users
 Behavioral outcomes of the consumers would be measured through the responses
acquired through survey

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 6
2. To determine how the robotic and technological strategies, used in the buildings, affect energy
efficiency
 Responses of the functional and executive designenrs of the companies would be used to
quantify the relation between technology and energy efficiency
3. To establish a framework of determined social and cultural habits, of users, for technological
strategies in nondomestic buildings
 Consequences of cultural determinant on the energy consumption of the occupants would
be identified through the responses of the occupants and verified through the responses of
the functional and executive designers
4. Based on the findings as per above plan, potential solutions would be identified
5. The identified solutions would be evaluated through computer simulation modeling
experiment and most potent solution recognised through the experiment would be recommended
to minimize the energy efficiency gap.
2.1 Cross-sectional survey design
A cross-sectional survey design would be used for this study as it would allow the research to
assess information collected from a range of respondents in a particular time (Nardi, 2018).
Though, unlike the longitudinal survey it cannot record the change in behaviour or experience of
the respondents concerning a research variable it is more effective in establishing relationship
between the variables in a given time (Caruana et al. 2015). This research aims to understand
the determinants of energy efficiency gap in UAE from two different perspectives. Therefore,
questionnaire would be distributed among two primary groups. 150 functional and executive

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 7
designers in 100 companies that deal with development and maintenance of DM-certified
buildings in Dubai would be selected randomly through probability sampling method to
understand the effect of technology and design strategies on the energy efficiency of
nondomestic buildings in the UAE. On the other hand, 150 nondomestic occupants of Green
Built certified buildings in Dubai would also be selected randomly through the probability
sampling method to acquire an understanding of the cultural and contextual aspects that
determine consumption behaviour of the occupants of such buildings in in the UAE (Etikan,
Musa and Alkassim, 2016).
Probability sampling method that utilizes the random sample selection method ensures that each
member of a population subset has the probability of being chosen for the survey which provides
better chances of representation of a larger population group, which is essential for acquiring a
generalizable result (Tillé and Wilhelm, 2017). The following survey stages might be followed to
reduce the coverage and error inn sampling:
1. Identification of a nondomestic, commercial area in Dubai that is frequented by UAE
residents
2. Classifying the buildings of the area in terms of operations and energy usage in 3
categories
3. Randomly selecting companies (total 100) from each category using computerized
methods
4. Randomly choosing functional and executive designers along with nondomestic
occupants, 50 from each category through probabilistic method
Low consumption Moderate High consumption

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 8
consumption
Functional and
executive designers
Hotels Entertainment
facilities
Dining facilities
Occupants Hotels Entertainment
facilities
Dining facilities
Table 1: Classification criteria for survey
(Source: Created by student)
The survey questionnaire would contain close ended multiple choice questions (Brace, 2018).
The questions would feature dichotomous scale, Likert’s five point scale; three point scale and
semantic differential scale (Harpe, 2015 and Takahashi, Ban and Asada, 2016) (refer to appendix
1 and 2).
2.2 Correlational and experimental study
As explained in the previous sections, the research incorporates both correlational as well as
experimental methods of research to serve two different purposes. Using the correlational
methods the research variables are observed in the target environment that is in the Green Built
certified, nondomestic buildings in UAE, which allowed a detailed understanding of the manner
in which factors like technology, design strategy and behaviour of the occupants of the buildings
(Walliman, 2015). Here use of the correlation method to acquire information from the 150
functional and executive designers and 150 occupants would help in cross-sectional investigation
and evaluation of the variables. On the other hand, to investigate the credibility of the solutions
identified experimental measures would be taken in form of computer simulation modeling. The

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 9
experimental method would help in controlling the variables that would be helpful in assessing
the effect of the dependent variables on energy efficiency of the building beyond the examples
available in the real environment (Patten and Newhart, 2017).
2.2.1 Field measurements
The field measurement will assess the energy requirement as per the respondents and then tally it
with the actual consumption history of the individuals. It would also evaluate the energy
efficiency gap based on the different energy consumption practices of the occupants of the
nondomestic buildings. The measurement of the period of the survey would span for two weeks
in summer and which is expected to be reasonable as the survey questionnaire would be sent to
the target participants through online channels like e-mail and social media sites. As the entire
survey is expected to take less than 15 minutes to complete therefore the respondents are
expected to respond within the span of 2 weeks with their responses.
The energy efficiency index (EEI) is one of the most advocated measures to evaluate the energy
consumption of a building that brings several variables like occupancy, HVAC system of the
building, operations within the building and so on (Bakar et al. 2015). EUI on the other hand is
recognized as the least useful information to evaluate the energy efficiency of a building as
without the consideration of variables the gap of energy performance cannot be determined
(Fairey and Goldstein, 2016). The survey, as it would tally the expected consumption with the
record might be effective in providing a better insight to the energy efficiency gap.
2.2.2 Method of calculation
The study would incorporate both survey and experiment. While the former would be used to
assess the cause of gap in energy efficiency in the nondomestic, Green Built (DM-Certified)

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 10
buildings in the UAE and provide strategic solution to minimize the gap; the latter would assess
the recommended solutions in a simulated environment of computer modeling. Information on
the energy consumption of the 100 buildings could be gathered from the performance and
executive designers of the buildings. In addition, the data acquired from both the designers and
the occupants could be arranged in systematic form of tables for statistical analysis for frequency
calculation and trend assessment (Quinlan et al. 2019). Findings of the statistical analysis would
be tallied with the theories studied during the literature review. For instance, the idea of gap
between the theoretical and actual energy saving propelled by Khoury, Alameddine and
Hollmuller (2017) can be verified through the response acquired during the survey.
2.3 Summary
This research aims to unveil the cause behind the factors that contribute to the performance gap
of energy efficiency in the nondomestic buildings in UAE. Factors such as the consumption
behavior of the occupants, the lack of technologically advanced design, strategy and measures
are identified through the secondary literature. The literature also identifies that development of a
user-centered programmed to leverage on the occupants’ cultured understanding and behavior
might help in reducing the performance gap of energy sufficiency, however, very little can be
found on the applicability of this measure. This issue might be addressed through the
amalgamation of questionnaire survey and experiment as discussed above. The survey would
cover 150 functional and executive designers in 100 companies and 150 occupants of the Green
Built certified buildings in Dubai, while the experiment would be performed in form of computer
simulated modeling. Use of the probability sampling method would ensure generalizability of the
survey result to ensure representative value of the selected sample.

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 11
3. Research phases
A. First phase: Definition and research design
i. Development of theoretical concept
 Literature review
 Identification of research issue, question and methods
 Identification of energy efficiency gaps in UAE nondomestic buildings
ii. Design research methods
 Survey protocol
 Field measurements procedure
 Inquiring technological and cultural practices of nondomestic residents
B. Second Phase: Data acquisition and evaluation
i. Conducting survey
ii. Questionnaire development and distribution
iii. Data acquisition
iv. Data entry, arrangement and analysis
v. Identification of gaps
vi. Proposing and evaluating potential solutions
vii. Narrowing down to suitable solutions
viii. Computer simulation modeling of chosen solution

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 12
ix. Assessing probable result of recommendation
C. Third Phase: Analysis and conclusion
 Findings, presentation and discussion
 Deriving conclusion
 Providing recommendations
Pre-empirical Empirical
Definition and research design →
→
→
→
→
Data acquisition and
evaluation
→
Analysis and
conclusion
Theoretical
concept
Design research
methods
i. Conducting survey
ii. Questionnaire
development and
distribution
iii. Data acquisition
iv. Data entry, arrangement
and analysis
v. Identification of gaps
vi. Potential solutions
vii. Suitable solutions
viii. Computer simulation
modeling of chosen
solution
ix. Assessing probable
recommendation
Findings presentation
and discussion
↓
↓
↓
Literature
review
Survey protocol Deriving conclusion
Research issue,
question and
methods
Field
measurements
procedure
↓
Deriving conclusion
Energy
efficiency gaps
in UAE
nondomestic
buildings
Technological and
cultural practices
of nondomestic
residents
Table 2: Research phases
(Source: Created by student)
Time
Actions
Week
1
Week
2
Week
3
Week
4
Week
5
Week
6
Wee
k 7
Week
8
Literature review

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 13
Research plan
Survey design
Survey conduction
Primary data entry
Data analysis
Deduction
Performance gap finding
List solutions
Computer simulation model
Experiment
Result assessment
Recommendation
Submission
Table 3: Research timeline
(Source: Created by student)
4. Limitations and ethical consideration
To ensure that the research is completed meeting the ethical guideline of educational research as
per the institutional ethical review board, attainment of ethical approval document would be
required. To ensure the rights of the participants, formal consent would be acquired from the
participants through a consent form (refer to appendix 3). In addition, regulations concerning
data confidentiality and privacy of the participants would be followed to avoid any ethical
misconduct (BERA, 2011). Participants would be informed of the research and its purpose in

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 14
advance and they would be provided option to withdraw their contribution from the study at any
stage of the survey. Anonymity of the participants would be maintained for privacy purposes.
Respect would be paid to the socio-cultural aspects of the participant from the UAE and the
individual preference and choices of the respondents would be respected.
One of the primary limitation of the research that is expected to be faced is that of the small
sample size. In addition, due to the limitation of the funds and accessibility issue the research
area would have to be limited to certain parts of Dubai which might not completely reflect the
practices and trends of the entire UAE, limiting the applicability of the research findings. Due to
lack of resources all the other locations of the UAE would be left uninvestigated. Due to the lack
of time and resources the main focus of the research would be the user-centered tactics and their
potential in enhancing energy efficiency while topics like the heuristic uncertainties would not be
covered as they require detailed qualitative assessment (Van Dronkelaar et al. 2016). In addition,
contextual factors like demographics of the users and their effect on their consumption behavior
would not be assessed. Finally, availability of larger time span could allow longitudinal study
unveiling the changing trends in energy efficiency and its gaps.

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 15
References
Bakar, N.N.A., Hassan, M.Y., Abdullah, H., Rahman, H.A., Abdullah, M.P., Hussin, F. and
Bandi, M., (2015). Energy efficiency index as an indicator for measuring building energy
performance: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 44, pp.1-11.
BERA (2011) ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH [Online] available
from: www.bbk.ac.uk/sshp/research/sshp-ethics-committee-and-procedures/BERA-Ethical-
Guidelines-2011.pdf [Accessed 20 March 2019]
Bernard, H.R., (2017). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative
approaches. 6th ed. London: Rowman & Littlefield.
Brace, I., (2018). Questionnaire design: How to plan, structure and write survey material for
effective market research. 4th ed. London: Kogan Page Publishers.
Brannen, J., (2017). Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research. London: Routledge.
Caruana, E.J., Roman, M., Hernández-Sánchez, J. and Solli, P., (2015). Longitudinal studies.
Journal of thoracic disease, 7(11), p.E537-E540.
Etikan, I., Musa, S.A. and Alkassim, R.S., (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and
purposive sampling. American journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), pp.1-4.
Fairey, P. and Goldstein, D. B., (2016). Metrics for Energy Efficient Buildings: How Do We
Measure Efficiency? ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, 1, pp. 1-12
Greenfield, T. and Greener, S. eds., (2016). Research methods for postgraduates. 3rd ed. John
West Sussex: Wiley & Sons.

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 16
Harpe, S.E., (2015). How to analyze Likert and other rating scale data, Currents in Pharmacy
Teaching and Learning, 7(6), pp.836-850.
Khoury, J., Alameddine, Z. and Hollmuller, P., (2017). Understanding and bridging the energy
performance gap in building retrofit. Energy Procedia, 122, pp.217-222.
Lin, M., Afshari, A. and Azar, E., (2018). A data-driven analysis of building energy use with
emphasis on operation and maintenance: A case study from the UAE. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 192, pp.169-178.
Nardi, P.M., (2018). Doing survey research: A guide to quantitative methods. 4th ed. New York:
Routledge.
Patten, M.L. and Newhart, M., (2017). Understanding research methods: An overview of the
essentials. 10th ed. New York: Routledge.
Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J. and Griffin, M., (2019). Business research methods. 2nd ed. UK:
South Western Cengage.
Takahashi, H., Ban, M. and Asada, M., (2016). Semantic differential scale method can reveal
multi-dimensional aspects of mind perception. Frontiers in psychology, 7, p.1717.
Thibaut, J.W., (2017). The social psychology of groups. New York: Routledge.
Tillé, Y. and Wilhelm, M., (2017). Probability sampling designs: principles for choice of design
and balancing. Statistical Science, 32(2), pp.176-189.

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 17
Van Dronkelaar, C., Dowson, M., Burman, E., Spataru, C. and Mumovic, D., (2016). A review
of the energy performance gap and its underlying causes in nondomestic buildings. Frontiers in
Mechanical Engineering, 1, p.17.
Walliman, N., (2015). Social research methods: The essentials. 2nd ed. London: Sage.

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 18
Appendices
Appendix 1:
Survey questionnaire for functional and executive designers
Factors affecting energy efficiency in nondomestic buildings
Date:…………………………………………
Area:…………………………………………
Name:……………………………………………
Company name:….……………………………...
Personal details
1. Gender Male Female Transgender
2. Age 18-
28
29-40 41-58 59 or above
3. Have you ever worked as a designer of buildings? Yes No
Have you ever done the following?
4. Received training in functional or executive design Yes No
5. Participated in design skill enhancement programmes Yes No
6. Faced difficulty in managing energy efficiency design of a building Yes No
7. Reviewed or inspected energy efficiency gaps of a building Yes No
8. Revived energy efficiency of a building Yes No
How strongly do you agree to the following?
Strongly agree Agree Neutra
l
Disagree Strongly disagree
9. You need training for designing

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 19
10. Your skills are inadequate
11. Your colleagues lack skills
12. The knowledge is backdates
13. Equipment available are back
dated
14. Occupants waste energy
15. Staff members waste energy
16. Staff needs instructions on
energy efficiency
17. Occupants’ energy use need to
be guided
18. How effective is the current robotic strategy of the company in managing energy?
Highly Slightly neither Slightly Highly
Effective Ineffective
19. How effective do you believe would the user centered programming be in improving energy
efficiency?
Highly Slightly neither Slightly Highly
Effective Ineffective
Using a scale of 1 to 5 rate the following.
20. Simulation model is effective in assessing credentials of a strategy. 1 2 3 4 5

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 20
Appendix 2:
Survey questionnaire for occupants of nondomestic buildings
Factors affecting energy efficiency in nondomestic buildings
Date:…………………………………………
Area:…………………………………………
Name:……………………………………………
Nondomestic facility:.……………………………...
Personal details
1. Gender Male Female Transgender
2. Age 18-28 29-40 41-58 59 or above
3. Have you ever acquired the services of a nondomestic building Yes No
Have you ever done the following?
4. Overused energy resources in a hotel Yes No
5. Overused energy resources in a restaurant Yes No
6. Witnessed energy resources being overused in a movie theatre Yes No
7. Witnessed energy resources being overused in any other entertainment center Yes No
8. Witnessed energy resources being overused in a hotel or restaurant Yes No
How strongly do you agree to the following?
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
9. You are energy efficient
10. Your know about energy efficiency
11. People misuse energy
12. People waste energy
13. People need to be educated about

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 21
energy efficiency
14. You are willing to contribute to
energy conservation
15. Staff members of hotels waste energy
16. Restaurant staff needs instructions on
energy efficiency
17. Fellow occupants need instructions
on energy efficiency
18. How effective is the current technology in managing energy?
Highly Slightly neither Slightly Highly
Effective Ineffective
19. How effective do you believe would the user centered programming be in improving energy efficiency?
Highly Slightly neither Slightly Highly
Effective Ineffective
Using a scale of 1 to 5 rate the following.
20. Simulation model is effective in assessing credentials of a strategy. 1 2 3 4 5

Design for energy efficiency in Buildings 22
Appendix 3:
Letter of consent for survey
Research about the performance gap factors of energy efficient nondomestic buildings in UAE
Researcher’s Name: Phone Number: E-mail ID:
Dear: ……………………………………………………………….
You are invited to participate in a research study on the performance gap factors of energy
efficient nondomestic buildings in UAE. The result of this study will help in finding sustainable
solution to the energy waste in nondomestic buildings in UAE.
Your contribution would be used only for academic purposes and your anonymity would be
ensured throughout the research process and even after it finishes. You are free to withdraw your
contribution to the study at any stage of the research. And you are free to contact the research via
the contact details provided above if you have any question regarding the research. Your
participation is highly appreciated an encouraged.
You may keep a copy of this letter for the record.