Simulation of occupancy in buildings

Abstract

Occupants are involved in a variety of activities in buildings, which drive them to move among rooms, enter or leave a building. In this study, occupancy is defined at four levels and varies with time: (1) the number of occupants in a building, (2) occupancy status of a space, (3) the number of occupants in a space, and (4) the space location of an occupant. Occupancy has a great influence on internal loads and ventilation requirement, thus building energy consumption. Based on a comprehensive review and comparison of literature on occupancy modeling, three representative occupancy models, corresponding to the levels 2, 3, and 4, are selected and implemented in a software module. Main contributions of our study include: (1) new methods to classify occupancy models, (2) the review and selection of various levels of occupancy models, and (3) new methods to integrate these model into a tool that can be used in different ways for different applications and by different audiences. The software can simulate more detailed occupancy in buildings to improve the simulation of energy use, and better evaluate building technologies in buildings. The occupancy of an office building is simulated as an example to demonstrate the use of the software module.

Cooling Energy Implications of Occupant Factor in Buildings under Climate Change

“…Existing studies confirm that the overall energy consumption of a building is closely related to occupancy patterns [14,15]. Some studies on occupants are related to the use of passive and active environmental control systems in buildings.…”

Occupant behaviour modelling in domestic buildings: the case of household electrical appliances

“…Studies which model the occupants' interaction with buildings and control systems have included lighting controls (Reinhart et al 2006), shading devices (Haldi and Robinson 2010) and ventilation (Yun et al 2008). Other studies have focused on occupancy presence, fundamental for occupancy research as most occupant behaviour patterns are influenced by occupancy (Roetzel et al 2010;D'Oca and Hong 2014;Zhao et al 2014;Feng et al 2015). Characterising the stochastic nature *Corresponding author.…”

Modelling home electricity management for sustainability: The impact of response levels, technological deployment & occupancy

“…Nonetheless, occupancy may be crucial when studying the heat load and ventilation according to humidity variation within a building [46]. In our model, occupancy is defined by the appliance usage profile.…”