Impact of Human Actions on Building Energy Performance: A Case Study in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Ahmed Al Amoodi,Elie Azar

doi:10.3390/su10051404

Ahmed Al Amoodi, Elie Azar

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051404

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: May 2, 2018
Citations: 23	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Khalifa University of Science and Technology

Abstract

There is a growing interest in the literature to understand how actions taken by occupants and facility managers can affect building performance. However, user-centric building energy research: (1) remains understudied compared to design-focused research efforts; (2) overlooks combined effects or uncertainty in multiple parameters; and (3) typically does not cover particular types of buildings (e.g., educational facilities), nor buildings subject to extreme weather conditions. This paper fills an important gap in the literature by proposing a comprehensive energy modeling and analysis framework to quantify the impact of human action on building energy consumption. The framework applies various data analysis methods such as differential, fractional factorial, and Monte Carlo analysis methods, in order to capture potential combined or synergetic effects of human actions on building performance. A case study is then presented on typical educational buildings located in the extreme hot climate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Results indicate that uncertainty in human actions can lead up to a ±25% variation from average energy consumption levels, confirming the significant role that people have in making their built environment more efficient and sustainable.

Highlights

The building sector is a major contributor to the high and increasing demands for energy and corresponding carbon emissions [1]
While the building type and experimental settings are different than the ones used in the current study, the authors in [3] estimated that a 4 ◦C increase in set point temperatures could lead to a reduction of 29% in cooling loads, which is equivalent to a change of 17.6% in the total building energy consumption
One such limitation is the lack of publically available building energy data in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which resulted in the partial reliance on data from international sources

Summary

Introduction

The building sector is a major contributor to the high and increasing demands for energy and corresponding carbon emissions [1]. Worldwide, this sector accounts for 30% to 40% of total energy consumption [2]. A building’s performance during operation is highly dependent on its design, especially the choice and sizing of its electro-mechanical systems For this purpose, building energy modeling software is commonly used during the design phase to: (1) simulate the building under study; (2) predict its energy consumption levels during operation; and (3) help designers and engineers choose and size different building systems (e.g., air conditioning units) [6,7]. A large number of building energy modeling tools can be found in the market and in literature; four of the most commonly used tools are: EnergyPlus, IES Virtual Environment, TRNSYS, and eQuest [8]

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