From occupancy to occupant behavior: An analytical survey of data acquisition technologies, modeling methodologies and simulation coupling mechanisms for building energy efficiency

Mengda Jia, Ravi S. Srinivasan and Adeeba A. Raheem

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2017, vol. 68, issue P1, 525-540

Abstract: Energy consumption and indoor environment of buildings are proved to be largely influenced by the presence and behaviors of occupants. The uncertainty caused by occupant behaviors accounts for a significant discrepancy between the predicted and actual energy usage. In a real world, building system operations and control will be directly affected by occupant behavior, which may lead to over thirty percent waste against building's designed performance. Therefore, the capability to seamlessly integrate occupant behavior in energy simulation tools and building management systems in the future is clearly important to optimize building energy use while maintaining the same level of services. However, research has not reached the phase that occupant behaviors could be effectively modeled. Thus, the traditional schedule based approach is not adequate to satisfy the needs of building efficiency. In this paper, a thorough survey of occupant behavior modeling and simulation state-of-the-art technologies and methodologies for building energy efficiency is conducted. The paper first identifies and discusses the significance and application scale of building occupant behavior model. Based on the information collected, some recent data acquisition technologies for behavior-related research and occupant behavior modeling approaches are summarized. The advantages and limitations of these modeling methods are compared and analyzed, as well as appropriate recommendations are made for the future research. The paper finally outlines the findings and potential development areas in the field of occupant behavior modeling for energy efficient buildings.

Keywords: Occupant behavior; Model application; Modeling; Building energy efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032116306608
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:68:y:2017:i:p1:p:525-540

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2016.10.011

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().