Ten questions concerning occupant behavior in buildings: The big picture

Abstract

Occupant behavior has significant impacts on building energy performance and occupant comfort. However, occupant behavior is not well understood and is often oversimplified in the building life cycle, due to its stochastic, diverse, complex, and interdisciplinary nature. The use of simplified methods or tools to quantify the impacts of occupant behavior in building performance simulations significantly contributes to performance gaps between simulated models and actual building energy consumption. Therefore, it is crucial to understand occupant behavior in a comprehensive way, integrating qualitative approaches and data-and model-driven quantitative approaches, and employing appropriate tools to guide the design and operation of low-energy residential and commercial buildings that integrate technological and human dimensions. This paper presents ten questions, highlighting some of the most important issues regarding concepts, applications, and methodologies in occupant behavior research. The proposed questions and answers aim to provide insights into occupant behavior for current and future researchers, designers, and policy makers, and most importantly, to inspire innovative research and applications to increase energy efficiency and reduce energy use in buildings.

A critical review on questionnaire surveys in the field of energy-related occupant behaviour

“…A recently-published big-picture paper summarised the gaps of this field of research as well (Hong et al 2016). Researchers articulated the main gaps here as: (1) oversimplified or disregarded occupant behaviours throughout the building operation process, (2) lack of common agreement on validity and applicability of occupant behaviour modelling and simulation approaches, and (3) unclear humancentred interdisciplinary solutions.…”

“…With invasive selfreported questionnaire surveys, for example, subjects are recruited participants in that they are aware of the scope of research and that they are being observed. Another approach of observation tool categorization was presented recently by Hong et al (Hong et al 2016). Physical sensing techniques are presented to be used for objective measurements, such as smart metering, BMS data, indoor and outdoor environmental data, and occupant interaction with control systems.…”

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

“…Researchers now broadly recognize the contextual (rather than purely environmental) factors influencing the human-building interaction [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Explorations regarding the achievement of energy-efficient usage in the building sector are today established around the understanding of the socio-technical link between building occupants' behavior and the use of building technologies, energy services, and controls [9]. Abrahamse, et al, [12] anticipated this interdisciplinary approach as a two-way exchange of knowledge from socio-technical disciplinary fields of sciences: "sociologists can provide more insight into macro-level factors that shape […] …”

“…The availability of more interdisciplinary occupants' data-driven knowledge-and behavioral models-to simulate varying parameters associated with specific building features or climate can further provide insights into actual energy performance fluctuations in buildings. This will help to bridge the accuracy gap between the predicted and actual human-building interaction, and, hence, energy performance, consumption, and comfort [9,54,95,96].…”

“…Occupant behavior research over the last decade primarily focused on the observation, understanding, and prediction of the behavioral phenomena in the office building sector [8,9]. 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.…”