ENHANCING ENERGY EFFICIENCY THROUGH ADAPTION OF BIOMIMICRY STRATEGY IN RESORT HOTEL

(A CASE STUDY OF MAMBILLA PLATEAU, TARABA STATE)

By

Author

Presented To

Department of Environmental Design

ABSTRACT
Resort facilities use a large amount of energy for its operation; cooling, lighting, heating and the 24hours time frame operation of the facility per day to provide comfort and services for guest (Bohdanowicz, 2009).The demand for energy has been met by fossil fuel for decades increasing the carbon footprint on the planet. the building industry today works towards reducing the carbon footprint. Biomimicry has shown to be effective in enhancing energy performance over the past years. This research is aimed at using biomimicry strategy to achieve energy reduction in Holiday resort hotel in the temperate climate of Mambilla plateau, Taraba. To achieve that, there was exploration of the concept of biomimicry relating to energy reduction in buildings and identify the appropriate biomimicry approach to be used. The study employed a mixed methodology with the use of case studies and computational simulations using quasi-experimental approach. Using the tree trunk mechanism as a strategy and purposely selected a case study of a resort hotel, base case models were created and using Design Builder/Energy plus to perform energy simulation and obtain annual cooling load data for the base case with and without the biomimicry strategy applied. The most optimal insulating material and external skin material is polystyrene and Anodized Aluminium which reduced cooling load by 60.57% in the hot dry climate of Kano. Further application in the temperate climate resulted in a 53.84% reduction in cooling load and 51.85% energy saved, this also indicated an increased heating in the cold months throughout the year. This study recommends that architects and other professionals in the building industry should consider energy efficiency right from the early stage and developing biomimetic building envelope that will lower energy consumption depending on the problem that needs to be solved in the facility.