Development of a Building Rating Tool to Provide Energy Efficiency Ratings for New Buildings

The Kingdom of Bahrain, through the Electricity & Water Conservation Directorate of the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA), has implemented regulatory and voluntary initiatives that are aimed at improving energy efficiency (EE) in new constructions. The government wanted to go a step further by implementing an initial simplified version of a building EE and renewable energy (RE) rating scheme to ensure that any new constructions in the commercial and institutional sectors are rated according to the level of EE and RE performance achieved at the design stage in comparison to typical building practices in the country.

Econoler worked in partnership with Green Innova Trading on the development, testing and commissioning of a simplified building rating software tool to be used to establish EE and RE ratings for new buildings at their final design stage and then at the commissioning stage. The scope of this rating tool comprised standard commercial and institutional buildings such as office buildings, hospitals and schools. The tool utilized data on typical material types such as wall and roof assemblies, windows, doors and equipment used in the local construction industry to ensure it was directly relevant to Bahrain’s specific context and needs.   The activities of the project were the following:

• Analyzing local building regulations;
• Analyzing the relevant international building labeling schemes;
• Establishing a list of criteria for the Bahrain labeling scheme;
• Designing an Excel-based tool;
• Developing a points-based rating system;
• Conducting a workshop on the tool to provide the necessary training and familiarization to launch the rating program.

  The EWA now has a simplified, adaptable software tool for assessing and rating overall building EE and RE performance levels, and its personnel has been trained to provide the appropriate modifications to the tool if necessary.