IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i3p1362-d733477.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Occupants’ Behaviour on the Building Performance Gap: UK Residential Case Studies

Author

Listed:
  • Ali Bahadori-Jahromi

    (Department of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London, London W5 5RF, UK)

  • Radwa Salem

    (Department of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London, London W5 5RF, UK)

  • Anastasia Mylona

    (Research Department, The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), London SW12 9BS, UK)

  • Agha Usama Hasan

    (Department of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London, London W5 5RF, UK)

  • Hexin Zhang

    (School of Engineering and the Built Environment, Edinburgh Napier University, 10 Clinton Road, Edinburgh EH10 5DT, UK)

Abstract

Studies have shown that the assumptions used to create dynamic thermal models of buildings do not reflect their actual energy use. Bridging the energy performance gap is vital in ensuring that a designed or retrofitted building meets the energy performance targets. Using thermal analysis simulation software TAS, this paper presents a simulation model of seven different UK single family houses. The results from the various models are validated by comparing the actual energy demand against the simulated consumption. The simulation results show that the heating set point has the greatest impact on the simulated energy demand. The results also demonstrate that the energy demand of the dwellings can be reduced by applying window opening schemes and by controlling the heating setpoint temperature and schedule. Plug load consumption is also considered by using plug load data of real UK households, as obtained from a longitudinal study, and calibrating the model based on average plug load contributions for the households. The results showed that, by increasing the heating set point and window opening schedules by 10% from self-reported data, and by considering an additional 12% for plug loads, the energy performance gap is reduced to less than >15% for all examined houses.

Suggested Citation

  • Ali Bahadori-Jahromi & Radwa Salem & Anastasia Mylona & Agha Usama Hasan & Hexin Zhang, 2022. "The Effect of Occupants’ Behaviour on the Building Performance Gap: UK Residential Case Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-18, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:3:p:1362-:d:733477
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1362/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1362/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Palladino, Domenico, 2023. "Energy performance gap of the Italian residential building stock: Parametric energy simulations for theoretical deviation assessment from standard conditions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 345(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:3:p:1362-:d:733477. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.