Actual energy-related occupant behaviours collected in surveys and quantified through building simulations

Two buildings from Western Sydney University, in Sydney Australia, were used as case study for this research. Firstly, 100 questionnaire surveys were performed to the occupants of a green-rated and a non-rated building in order to collect occupants' interactions with heating, cooling, lighting, plug loads, shading and windows opening. Then, the results from the surveys were quantified by means of dynamic simulations. These simulations were performed to calibrated models, according to actual energy data, from the two buildings mentioned previously. In order to be able to be comparable, the buildings had to have similar characteristics, such as; floor area, types of activities, schedules, primary energy resources used in the main systems, among others. Finally, with the simulation results it was possible to obtain the actual occupants' actions and behaviours in the two buildings, collected in the surveys. Results show that occupants from the non-rated building are more proactive in terms of energy efficiency than the ones in the green building. Furthermore, heating, lighting and plug loads are the impacting end uses due to occupants' behaviours in the non-rated building, while in the green building occupants have influence in lighting, heating and cooling. Moreover, due to the fact that most of the main systems, in the green building, are being controlled by a centralized management system, occupants' behaviours have less impact in the overall energy use.