A Feasibility Study on Occupants' Behaviour and Energy Usage Patterns and Its Potential Integration With Building Information Modelling

Abstract

Understanding how occupants manage their energy use in homes and how their behaviour influence household energy consumption in domestic environments has been challenging. There seems to be several major factors contributing towards achieving optimal performance in designing, constructing and maintaining a sustainable home using Building Information Modelling (BIM) based approaches. This study focuses on investigating the relationship between user behaviour and energy consumption through the in-depth analysis of energy usage patterns collected from a selected affordable terraced house in Prestwick, Scotland, as an initial attempt towards the future integration with BIM systems. For the purpose of this feasibility study, indoor temperature, relative humidity and CO2 sensors, as well as a gas-electricity-water utility monitor were installed in the selected home occupied by a working class nuclear household. The study encompasses the analyses of energy usage patterns in their daily life. It is confirmed that domestic energy consumption is affected by the occupants' presence and behaviour. Moreover, this paper discusses a possibility that the energy prediction approach taken in this study could work alongside BIM systems applied for housing suppliers' design decision-making on the delivery of energy efficient homes of the future.