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Published:
18 June 2015
Mitigating office performance uncertainty of occupant use of window blinds and lighting using robust design
William O’Brien(
),
),
Keywords:
daylighting, occupant behaviour modelling, robust design, solar shading, probabilistic performance predictions
Cite this article:
O’Brien W, Gunay HB.
Mitigating office performance uncertainty of occupant use of window blinds and lighting using robust design.
Building Simulation,
2015, 8(6): 621-636.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-015-0239-2
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Occupant behaviour represents one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in building energy use. Energy use uncertainty is an undesirable trait with regards to sizing equipment and estimating energy use and cost. This paper presents one approach to help address this uncertainty: use of passive building measures to minimize the occurrence of discomfort so that occupants do not have to adapt as frequently in potentially energy-intensive ways. A robust design method is proposed whereby occupant behaviour models are embedded in building performance simulation to test different building designs for their probabilistic energy use and adaptive actions. To demonstrate the method, the daylighting and solar shading domain is explored. The results indicate one possible approach to reducing the impact of occupant behaviour in buildings. However, the study also shows the need for more occupant monitoring and modelling research as well as more empirical evidence to validate robust design strategies.
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Mitigating office performance uncertainty of occupant use of window blinds and lighting using robust design
William O’Brien(
),
),
Abstract
Occupant behaviour represents one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in building energy use. Energy use uncertainty is an undesirable trait with regards to sizing equipment and estimating energy use and cost. This paper presents one approach to help address this uncertainty: use of passive building measures to minimize the occurrence of discomfort so that occupants do not have to adapt as frequently in potentially energy-intensive ways. A robust design method is proposed whereby occupant behaviour models are embedded in building performance simulation to test different building designs for their probabilistic energy use and adaptive actions. To demonstrate the method, the daylighting and solar shading domain is explored. The results indicate one possible approach to reducing the impact of occupant behaviour in buildings. However, the study also shows the need for more occupant monitoring and modelling research as well as more empirical evidence to validate robust design strategies.
Keywords:
daylighting, occupant behaviour modelling, robust design, solar shading, probabilistic performance predictions
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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Publication history
Received: 09 February 2015
Revised: 28 April 2015
Accepted: 27 May 2015
Published:
18 June 2015
Issue date: December 2015
Copyright
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to recognize financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada and the researchers at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for their discussion about the LightLouverTM daylighting system. This work has benefited significantly through discussions with IEA EBC Annex 66: Definition and Simulation of Occupant Behavior in Buildings.
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