Advances in research and applications of energy-related occupant behavior in buildings

Hong, Tianzhen; Taylor-Lange, Sarah C.; D’Oca, Simona; Yan, Da; Corgnati, Stefano Paolo

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2015.11.052

Cited by 440 publications

(226 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Current applications of the DNAS framework are broad, including building energy modeling and simulation, building design, development of codes and standards, and the support of building performance policy decisions [33,34,94]. Advances in occupant behavior modeling in building performance simulation are accommodating more advanced inputs compared to traditional approaches to describing building occupants as deterministic schedules that play a mechanistic role in the interaction with building technologies [8]. Extending the DNAS framework to include data-driven knowledge gathered from the survey can facilitate the integration of contextual factors of behaviors into current behavioral models.…”

Section: 23modeling and Simulation Advancementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Together with a pool of researchers in the context of the International Energy Agency Annex 66 "Definition and Simulation of Occupant Behavior in Buildings" activities [31], the study explored and combined theories and insights from the technical and social dimensions of human-building interactions to support research in the fields of building and social sciences to better quantify the influence of occupant behaviors on building energy performance [8]. The proposed research framework is based on social cognitive theory (Section 2.1), the DNAS framework for energy-related behaviors (Section 2.2), and the theory of planned behavior (Section 2.3).…”

Section: Integrated Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using information gained from the disciplines of building energy and social-psychology, research presented in this paper embraces a new interdisciplinary branch of occupant behavior research focusing on the link between occupant behavior, building controls, and energy-related consumption effects [8], driving innovations for building technology adoption in the commercial building sector.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Synthesizing building physics with social psychology: An interdisciplinary framework for context and occupant behavior in office buildings

D’Oca

Chen

Hong

et al. 2017

Energy Research & Social Science

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113

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This study introduces an interdisciplinary framework for investigating building-user interaction in office spaces. The framework is a synthesis of theories from building physics and social psychology including social cognitive theory, the theory of planned behavior, and the driversneeds-actions-systems ontology for energy-related behaviors. The goal of the research framework is to investigate the effects of various behavioral adaptations and building controls (i.e., adjusting thermostats, operating windows, blinds and shades, and switching on/off artificial lights) to determine impacts on occupant comfort and energy-related operational costs in the office environment. This study attempts to expand state-of-the-art understanding of: (1) the environmental, personal, and behavioral drivers motivating occupants to interact with building control systems across four seasons, (2) how occupants' intention to share controls is influenced by social-psychological variables such as attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control in group negotiation dynamic, (3) the perceived ease of usage and knowledge of building technologies, and (4) perceived satisfaction and productivity. To ground the validation of the theoretical framework in diverse office settings and contexts at the international scale, an online survey was designed to collect cross-country responses from office occupants among 14 universities and research centers within the United States, Europe, China, and Australia.

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Section: 23modeling and Simulation Advancementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Integrated Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Synthesizing building physics with social psychology: An interdisciplinary framework for context and occupant behavior in office buildings

D’Oca

Chen

Hong

et al. 2017

Energy Research & Social Science

Self Cite

113

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“…When occupants are located in a space, they may be able to control the building systems (such as lights, HVAC, and windows), and therefore influence energy consumption (Haldi, 2013). Some technologies such as personalized ventilation systems (Chen, Raphael, & Sekhar, 2012, occupancy sensors, and occupant-based controls (Hong, Taylor-Lange, D'Oca, Yan, & Corgnati, 2015) are strongly dependent on occupant presence and movement. Current BPS programs such as EnergyPlus (Crawley et al, 2001) and DeST (Yan et al, 2008) use deterministic and static weekly schedules to represent occupancy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An agent-based stochastic Occupancy Simulator

2017

Self Cite

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Occupancy has significant impacts on building performance. However, in current building performance simulation programs, occupancy inputs are static and lack diversity, contributing to discrepancies between the simulated and actual building performance. This paper presents an Occupancy Simulator that simulates the stochastic behavior of occupant presence and movement in buildings, capturing the spatial and temporal occupancy diversity. Each occupant and each space in the building are explicitly simulated as an agent with their profiles of stochastic behaviors. The occupancy behaviors are represented with three types of models: (1) the status transition events (e.g., first arrival in office) simulated with Reinhart's LIGHTSWITCH-2002 model, (2) the random moving events (e.g., from one office to another) simulated with Wang's homogeneous Markov chain model, and (3) the meeting events simulated with a new stochastic model. A hierarchical data model was developed for the Occupancy Simulator, which reduces the amount of data input by using the concepts of occupant types and space types. Finally, a case study of a small office building is presented to demonstrate the use of the Simulator to generate detailed annual sub-hourly occupant schedules for individual spaces and the whole building.The Simulator is a web application freely available to the public and capable of performing a detailed stochastic simulation of occupant presence and movement in buildings. Future work includes 1 enhancements in the meeting event model, consideration of personal absent days, verification and validation of the simulated occupancy results, and expansion for use with residential buildings.

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“…The interactions include adjusting thermostat settings, opening or closing windows, dimming or turning on/off lights, pulling up or down window blinds, switching on or off plug loads, and consuming domestic hot water [1]. People spend most of their time in buildings; energy-related occupant behavior in buildings is one of the six influencing factors of building performance [2] [3], which include climate, building envelope, building equipment, operation and maintenance, occupant behavior, and indoor environment conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A simulation approach to estimate energy savings potential of occupant behavior measures

Sun

Hong

2017

Energy and Buildings

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101

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Occupant behavior in buildings is a leading factor influencing energy use in buildings. Low-cost behavioral solutions have demonstrated significant potential energy savings. Estimating the behavioral savings potential is important for a more effective design of behavior change interventions, which in turn will support more effective energy-efficiency policies. This study introduces a simulation approach to estimate the energy savings potential of occupant behavior measures. First it defines five typical occupant behavior measures in office buildings, then simulates and analyzes their individual and integrated impact on energy use in buildings. The energy performance of the five behavior measures was evaluated using EnergyPlus simulation for a real office building across four typical U.S. climates and two vintages. The Occupancy Simulator was used to simulate the occupant movement in each zone with inputs from the site survey of the case building. Based on the simulation results, the occupant behavior measures can achieve overall site energy savings as high as 22.9% for individual measures and up to 41.0% for integrated measures. Although energy savings of behavior measures would vary depending upon many factors, the presented simulation approach is robust and can be adopted for other studies aiming to quantify occupant behavior impact on building performance.

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Advances in research and applications of energy-related occupant behavior in buildings

Cited by 440 publications

References 52 publications

Synthesizing building physics with social psychology: An interdisciplinary framework for context and occupant behavior in office buildings

Synthesizing building physics with social psychology: An interdisciplinary framework for context and occupant behavior in office buildings

An agent-based stochastic Occupancy Simulator

A simulation approach to estimate energy savings potential of occupant behavior measures

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