Simulating the Impact of Occupants on Office Building Design Process: A Case Study

Abuimara, Tareq; Gunay, H. Burak; O’Brien, William D.

doi:10.26868/25222708.2019.210195

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The results of this study suggest implementing DCV in colder climate zones results in significant savings while its impact in climates with lower HDD might be less significant. Furthermore, the results of this study confirmed the findings of previous studies that demonstrated DCV yields higher savings under partial occupancy rather than full occupancy (Jemaa et al 2018;Abuimara et al 2019;O'Brien and Gunay 2019). These findings illustrate there is a direct relationship between potential savings that resulted from DCV and increasing HDD.…”

Section: The Relationship Between DCV and Hdd And Its Potential Savingssupporting

confidence: 88%

A comprehensive simulation-based assessment of office building performance adaptability to teleworking scenarios in different Canadian climate zones

2021

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Recent studies have shown that office building systems do not adapt well to partial occupancy (e.g., from teleworking) and thus perform suboptimally. As a result, this study aims to assess office building performance adaptability by investigating the impact of four different technologies, including occupancy-based lighting, smart plugs (occupancy-based plug load), demand-controlled ventilation (DCV), occupancy-based thermostat, and their cumulative effect in office buildings in six different Canadian climates. A three-story office building is simulated in EnergyPlus version 9.3.0 under five occupancy scenarios, including 0% occupancy, 100% occupancy, 50% uniformly distributed occupancy across the floor, 50% consolidated occupancy scenario where occupants work in core zones, and 50% consolidated occupancy scenario where occupants work in perimeter zones. The results are compared using energy use intensity (EUI), energy use intensity per occupant (EUP), and the corresponding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A total of 180 simulations demonstrate the occupancy-adaptive technologies are generally most beneficial for low occupancy scenarios and milder climates. The results also show the cumulative impact of all these technologies on the potential energy savings is significant in the climates under consideration. Overall, the results show office buildings can improve their performance adaptability during partial occupancy by implementing the studied technologies. Aside from filling in the current knowledge gap in the literature on partial occupancy, the for the first time results of this study systemically demonstrate how each technology performs under different partial occupancy scenarios and how they perform together at each climate.

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Section: The Relationship Between DCV and Hdd And Its Potential Savingssupporting

confidence: 88%

A comprehensive simulation-based assessment of office building performance adaptability to teleworking scenarios in different Canadian climate zones

2021

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“…O'Brien, Gaetani et al (2016) found that many modellers use building code occupantrelated schedules, even if the code allows flexibility because modelers lack better information at the time of design. Through a workshop of energy modellers, Abuimara, O'Brien et al (2018) reported that modellers tend to use defaults/code assumptions about occupants to avoid liability, even if they know these values are unrealistic.…”

Section: Introduction and Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

An international review of occupant-related aspects of building energy codes and standards

O’Brien

Tahmasebi

Andersen

et al. 2020

Building and Environment

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In light of recent research, it is evident that occupants are playing an increasingly important role in building energy performance. Around the world, a driving factor for how buildings are designed-and operated in some cases-is the local building codes. Yet, occupant-related aspects of building energy codes have traditionally been simple because: 1) occupants are often seen as a source of uncertainty that cannot be reconciled by current code methodologies and language, and 2) the codes have not kept up with the recent surge of interest and importance of occupants. This paper provides a review of 22 international building energy codes and standards by first comparing quantitative aspects and then analyzing rules and approaches mandated by the codes. The review of requirements for prescriptive and performance path requirements revealed a wide range of occupant-related values, approaches, and attitudes. For example, a key value such as occupant density varies by nearly a factor of three between countries' codes, which among other things underlines the need for development of locally tailored occupant behaviour models for future occupant-centric building performance standards and codes. Moreover, occupants are often referred to only implicitly; the level of optimism that occupants make energy-saving actions varies greatly; and, only a few codes address occupant feedback and system usability. Based on the findings, a set of initial recommendations for future building energy codes is made. The focus in this paper is offices, though the general recommendations are applicable to other building types.

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“…However, since current studies are mainly based on the traditional fixed schedule and do not fully consider the significant impact of various occupant behaviours on energy consumption and indoor environmental quality during the building operation phase, it is difficult to guarantee the suitability of the optimisation strategy in different energy-use scenarios. Currently, the study of building operation phase optimisation has attracted the attention of some researchers and has been progressing steadily [25,26]. An effective integrated control-oriented modelling has been proposed for testing HVAC control strategies and corresponding energy consumption [27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influencing Factors on Air Conditioning Energy Consumption of Naturally Ventilated Research Buildings Based on Actual HVAC Behaviours

Wu,

Chen,

Ying

et al. 2023

Buildings

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The fixed description of HVAC behaviours leads to inaccurate prediction of air conditioning energy consumption, which in turn affects the appropriateness and effectiveness of energy conservation strategies. Based on a naturally ventilated research building located in Hangzhou, China, a stochastic prediction model reflecting actual HVAC behaviours is established based on clustering analysis and the Monte Carlo method, and it is integrated into the AC energy consumption simulation through Python programming. Then, important factors influencing AC energy consumption are clarified by importance analysis based on random forest regression, and the integrated strategies based on them are studied based on the simulation and control variable approach. As a result, the error rate between the measured and simulated AC power consumption is −5.24% and 2.56% in the heating and cooling conditions, respectively. And the relative importance and the number of important factors following the actual HVAC behaviours are remarkably different from those based on the fixed behavioural pattern. The implementation of integrated AC energy conservation strategies based on important influencing factors achieves 35.02% energy savings. Consequently, a theoretical basis for the accurate prediction of AC energy consumption and efficient implementation of energy conservation strategies is established.

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Simulating the Impact of Occupants on Office Building Design Process: A Case Study

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

A comprehensive simulation-based assessment of office building performance adaptability to teleworking scenarios in different Canadian climate zones

A comprehensive simulation-based assessment of office building performance adaptability to teleworking scenarios in different Canadian climate zones

An international review of occupant-related aspects of building energy codes and standards

Influencing Factors on Air Conditioning Energy Consumption of Naturally Ventilated Research Buildings Based on Actual HVAC Behaviours

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