Identifying residential building occupancy profiles with demographic characteristics: using a national time use survey data

Abstract

Occupancy patterns in residential buildings and profiles with family information are essential for the energy system design and optimization, for the electricity demand responses and management of buildings, and for constructing household energy efficiency policies. To address the shortcomings of current research, this study conducted a national-wide survey in China with a valid sample of 8,190 urban households representing 19,352 individuals. On this basis, a novel approach was generated and conducted to identify the occupancy patterns in residential buildings and describe familiy profiles of typical occupancy pattern. Results indicate that occupied duration for urban residential building is 20.3 h per day during weekdays and 20.1 h per day during weekend. Four occupancy patterns during workday and five occupancy patterns during weekend were identified. Family demographic characteristics, housing characteristics, geographical location, education experience, work experience, and income level are revealed to be correlated with residents’ occupancy pattern. These results could be widely used in building-level energy performance simulation and optimization, and community-level energy and emission policy tools design.