Higher Education Building Efficient Electrical Design

This paper encompasses design and development for an energy efficient electrical design of a commercial structure for a post-secondary academic institution. The goal of this work is to design a complete and safe electrical system that reduces power consumption and increases user friendly operation of all high and low voltage equipment for the end users of the building. Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools are used to design and model the electrical systems. In this paper, a step by step process has been presented to accomplish each task to successfully complete designs. Background information, goals, and methodologies are included with supporting material to showcase that this design has a high probability of achieving all expectations. The device and equipment layout of the floor plans for each type of electrical system were designed. In addition, all electrical load and lighting calculations were performed using Microsoft Excel and Acuity Brands Visual 2012. Furthermore, three dimensional modeling of components within the building environment was presented. Schematic floor plan layouts on 30" × 42" architectural sheets along with highlighting important points from our technical specifications were also introduced and presented. Also simulation results obtained from the lighting analysis software were presented to demonstrate the completion of the power distribution diagram, the lightning protection design, and all technical detailed installation drawings in AutoCAD MEP and Autodesk Revit.