The Role of Occupants in Buildings’ Energy Performance Gap: Myth or Reality?

Thermal Engineering for the Built Environment Laboratory (TEBEL), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Passage du Cardinal 13B, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland

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Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway

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Research Institute CENERGIE—Center for Energy Efficient Buildings and Districts, Department 05: Building Services Engineering, Munich University of Applied Sciences, Lothstr. 34, 80335 Munich, Germany

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Division of Sustainability, Energy and Indoor Environment, Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University, A. C. Meyers Vænge 15, 2450 Copenhagen, Denmark

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Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK

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School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC 3220, Australia

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Software Engineering Section, Mærsk Mckinney Møller Institute, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense, Denmark

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Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

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Arbnco Ltd., Glasgow G1 1RD, UK

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Division of Building Services Engineering, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden

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Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A4, Canada

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Research Group Building Physics, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

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Academic Editors: Antonio Caggiano and Francesco Leccese

Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3146; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063146

Received: 22 January 2021 / Revised: 25 February 2021 / Accepted: 9 March 2021 / Published: 12 March 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Building Energy Efficiency Research for Sustainable Development)

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Abstract

Buildings’ expected (projected, simulated) energy use frequently does not match actual observations. This is commonly referred to as the energy performance gap. As such, many factors can contribute to the disagreement between expectations and observations. These include, for instance, uncertainty about buildings’ geometry, construction, systems, and weather conditions. However, the role of occupants in the energy performance gap has recently attracted much attention. It has even been suggested that occupants are the main cause of the energy performance gap. This, in turn, has led to suggestions that better models of occupant behavior can reduce the energy performance gap. The present effort aims at the review and evaluation of the evidence for such claims. To this end, a systematic literature search was conducted and relevant publications were identified and reviewed in detail. The review entailed the categorization of the studies according to the scope and strength of the evidence for occupants’ role in the energy performance gap. Moreover, deployed calculation and monitoring methods, normalization procedures, and reported causes and magnitudes of the energy performance gap were documented and evaluated. The results suggest that the role of occupants as significant or exclusive contributors to the energy performance gap is not sufficiently substantiated by evidence. View Full-Text

Keywords: buildings; performance gap; energy; occupant behavior

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MDPI and ACS Style

Mahdavi, A.; Berger, C.; Amin, H.; Ampatzi, E.; Andersen, R.K.; Azar, E.; Barthelmes, V.M.; Favero, M.; Hahn, J.; Khovalyg, D.; Knudsen, H.N.; Luna-Navarro, A.; Roetzel, A.; Sangogboye, F.C.; Schweiker, M.; Taheri, M.; Teli, D.; Touchie, M.; Verbruggen, S. The Role of Occupants in Buildings’ Energy Performance Gap: Myth or Reality? Sustainability 2021, 13, 3146. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063146

AMA Style

Mahdavi A, Berger C, Amin H, Ampatzi E, Andersen RK, Azar E, Barthelmes VM, Favero M, Hahn J, Khovalyg D, Knudsen HN, Luna-Navarro A, Roetzel A, Sangogboye FC, Schweiker M, Taheri M, Teli D, Touchie M, Verbruggen S. The Role of Occupants in Buildings’ Energy Performance Gap: Myth or Reality? Sustainability. 2021; 13(6):3146. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063146

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mahdavi, Ardeshir, Christiane Berger, Hadeer Amin, Eleni Ampatzi, Rune K. Andersen, Elie Azar, Verena M. Barthelmes, Matteo Favero, Jakob Hahn, Dolaana Khovalyg, Henrik N. Knudsen, Alessandra Luna-Navarro, Astrid Roetzel, Fisayo C. Sangogboye, Marcel Schweiker, Mahnameh Taheri, Despoina Teli, Marianne Touchie, and Silke Verbruggen. 2021. "The Role of Occupants in Buildings’ Energy Performance Gap: Myth or Reality?" Sustainability 13, no. 6: 3146. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063146

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