Occupant behaviour lifestyles and effects on building energy use: Investigation on high and low performing building features

Occupant behaviour is known to be one of the key sources of uncertainty in the prediction of building energy use. Extended literature reviews linked the large performance gaps between residential buildings with same properties and similar climate conditions to the way occupants interact with the building envelope and systems. Furthermore, in the last decades, more stringent energy codes have led to energy efficient design strategies with the aim of reaching the nearly-zero energy target. The success of these strategies is now heavily dependent on how the occupants interact with the building, or rather, on the energy-related lifestyles they assume. In line with this, the present study employs building simulations to demonstrate the potential impact of different occupant behaviour lifestyles on the energy use of a Mediterranean (i) residential nearly-zero energy building (nZEB) under-construction and a (ii) Reference Building (RB) whose envelope-driven loads dominate the consumption profile

insights into the effects of occupant behaviour lifestyles and building automation on building energy use

Abstract In order to optimize building energy consumption, Member States will have to establish minimum efficiency requirements for systems, and promote the introduction of active control system in new constructions or major renovations. Energy saving, plant efficiency and environmental sustainability are also factors delineating smart buildings. Interestingly, occupant behaviour is known to be one of the key sources of uncertainty in the prediction of building energy use. The success of automation strategies is recognized to be dependent on how the occupants interact with the building. The present research describes the effect of different building occupants' lifestyles and building automation on a high performing building

Review of health and well-being aspects in Green Certification Protocols

Over the past decades, the world-leading Green Certification Protocols have paid increasing attention to health-related aspects of buildings. However, the way and the extent to which green certifications currently account for these aspects vary largely. This paper aims to review and compare four certification protocols, namely LEED v4, BREEAM 2018, WELL v2, and MINERGIE-ECO v1.4, and to provide insights on how aspects related to occupants’ health and well-being and their influencing factors are accounted for and assessed. To that scope, indicators used to assess the users' health and well-being are extracted from each certification and compared. Indicators traditionally used to evaluate IEQ in buildings (thermal, indoor air quality, visual and acoustic) based on international or national standards were found in all certifications. However, the analysis highlights that their assessment and verification stage (e.g., pre- vs. post- occupancy) significantly differs from one label to another. More “advanced” indicators, which are related to mind, promotion of physical activities, and community engagement, have come to light. While a comprehensive approach to the evaluation of well-being might include a combination of objective (e.g., measurement-based evaluations) and subjective components (e.g., people’s subjective evaluation), the review highlighted that only in one protocol (i.e., WELL), direct feedback from occupants is kept in the loop for further optimization of the building management during operation. Otherwise, indicators are mainly verified through quantitative measurements, reports, or implemented policies

The Role of Occupants in Buildings’ Energy Performance Gap: Myth or Reality?

Buildings’ expected (projected, simulated) energy use frequently does not match actual observations. This is commonly referred to as the energy performance gap. As such, many factors can contribute to the disagreement between expectations and observations. These include, for instance, uncertainty about buildings’ geometry, construction, systems, and weather conditions. However, the role of occupants in the energy performance gap has recently attracted much attention. It has even been suggested that occupants are the main cause of the energy performance gap. This, in turn, has led to suggestions that better models of occupant behavior can reduce the energy performance gap. The present effort aims at the review and evaluation of the evidence for such claims. To this end, a systematic literature search was conducted and relevant publications were identified and reviewed in detail. The review entailed the categorization of the studies according to the scope and strength of the evidence for occupants’ role in the energy performance gap. Moreover, deployed calculation and monitoring methods, normalization procedures, and reported causes and magnitudes of the energy performance gap were documented and evaluated. The results suggest that the role of occupants as significant or exclusive contributors to the energy performance gap is not sufficiently substantiated by evidence.</jats:p

Review of multi‐domain approaches to indoor environmental perception and behaviour

Building occupants are continuously exposed to multiple indoor environmental stimuli, including thermal, visual, acoustic, and air quality related factors. Moreover, personal and contextual aspects can be regarded as additional domains influencing occupants’ perception and behaviour. The scientific literature in this area typically deals with these multiple stimuli in isolation. In contrast to single-domain research, multi-domain research analyses at least two different domains, for example, visual and thermal. The relatively few literature reviews that have considered multi-domain approaches to indoor-environmental perception and behaviour covered only a few dozen articles each. The present contribution addresses this paucity by reviewing 219 scientific papers on interactions and cross-domain effects that influence occupants’ indoor environmental perception and behaviour. The objective of the present review is to highlight motivational backgrounds, key methodologies, and major findings of multi-domain investigations of human perception and behaviour in indoor environments. The in-depth review of these papers provides not only an overview of the state of the art, but also contributes to the identification of existing knowledge gaps in this area and the corresponding need for future research. In particular, many studies use “convenience” variables and samples, there is often a lack of theoretical foundation to studies, and there is little research linking perception to action

Human-building interaction at work: Findings from an interdisciplinary cross-country survey in Italy

This study presents results from an interdisciplinary survey assessing contextual and behavioral factors driving occupants' interaction with building and systems in offices located across three different Mediterranean climates in Turin (Northern), Perugia (Central), and Rende (Southern) Italy. The survey instrument is grounded in an interdisciplinary framework that bridges the gap between building physics and social science environments on the energy- and comfort-related human-building interaction in the workspace. Outcomes of the survey questionnaire provide insights into four key learning objectives: (1) individual occupant's motivational drivers regarding interaction with shared building environmental controls (such as adjustable thermostats, operable windows, blinds and shades, and artificial lighting), (2) group dynamics such as perceived social norms, attitudes, and intention to share controls, (3) occupant perception of the ease of use and knowledge of how to operate control systems, and (4) occupant-perceived comfort, satisfaction, and productivity. This study attempts to identify climatic, cultural, and socio-demographic influencing factors, as well as to establish the validity of the survey instrument and robustness of outcomes for future studies. Also, the paper aims at illustrating why and how social science insights can bring innovative knowledge into the adoption of building technologies in shared contexts, thus enhancing perceived environmental satisfaction and effectiveness of personal indoor climate control in office settings and impacting office workers' productivity and reduced operational energy costs

The role of occupants in buildings’ energy performance gap: myth or reality?

Buildings’ expected (projected, simulated) energy use frequently does not match actual observations. This is commonly referred to as the energy performance gap. As such, many factors can contribute to the disagreement between expectations and observations. These include, for instance, uncertainty about buildings’ geometry, construction, systems, and weather conditions. However, the role of occupants in the energy performance gap has recently attracted much attention. It has even been suggested that occupants are the main cause of the energy performance gap. This, in turn, has led to suggestions that better models of occupant behavior can reduce the energy performance gap. The present effort aims at the review and evaluation of the evidence for such claims. To this end, a systematic literature search was conducted and relevant publications were identified and reviewed in detail. The review entailed the categorization of the studies according to the scope and strength of the evidence for occupants’ role in the energy performance gap. Moreover, deployed calculation and monitoring methods, normalization procedures, and reported causes and magnitudes of the energy performance gap were documented and evaluated. The results suggest that the role of occupants as significant or exclusive contributors to the energy performance gap is not sufficiently substantiated by evidence.Design of Construtio

Quality criteria for multi-domain studies in the indoor environment: Critical review towards research guidelines and recommendations

The perception, physiology, behavior, and performance of building occupants are influenced by multi-domain exposures: the simultaneous presence of multiple environmental stimuli, i.e., visual, thermal, acoustic, and air quality. Despite being extensive, the literature on multi-domain exposures presents heterogeneous methodological approaches and inconsistent study reporting, which hinder direct comparison between studies and meta-analyses. Therefore, in addition to carrying out more multi-domain studies, such investigations need to be designed, conducted, and documented in a systematic and transparent way. With the goal to facilitate and support future multi-domain studies and their meta-analyses, this work provides (1) a range of criteria for multi-domain study design and reporting (i.e., defined as quality criteria), and (2) a critical review of the multi-domain literature based on the described criteria, which can serve as guidelines and recommendations for future studies on the topic. The identified quality criteria encompass study set-up, study deployment and analysis, and study outcome, stressing the importance of adopting a consistent terminology and result reporting style. The developed critical review highlights several shortcomings in the design, deployment, and documentation of multi-domain studies, emphasizing the need for quality improvements of future multi-domain research. The ultimate goal of this work is to consolidate our knowledge on multi-domain exposures for its integration into regulatory resources and guidelines, which are currently dominated by single-domain knowledge.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Design of Construtio

Culture, conformity, and carbon? A multi-country analysis of heating and cooling practices in office buildings

This study investigates human-building interaction in office spaces across multiple countries including Brazil, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, the United States, and Taiwan. We analyze social-psychological, contextual, and demographic factors to explain cross-country differences in adaptive thermal actions (i.e. cooling and heating behaviors) and conformity to the norms of sharing indoor environmental control features, an indicator of energy consumption. Specifically, personal adjustments such as putting on extra clothes are generally preferred over technological solutions such as adjusting thermostats in reaction to thermal discomfort. Social-psychological factors including attitudes, perceived behavioral control, injunctive norms, and perceived impact of indoor environmental quality on work productivity influence occupants’ intention to conform to the norms of sharing environmental control features. Lastly, accessibility to environmental control features, office type, gender, and age are also important factors. These findings demonstrate the roles of social-psychological and certain contextual factors in occupants’ interactions with building design as well as their behavior of sharing environmental control features, both of which significantly influence building energy consumption, and thus, broader decarbonization