Influence of interior layouts on occupant energy-saving behaviour in buildings: An integrated approach using Agent-Based Modelling, System Dynamics and Building Information Modelling

Abstract

Interior layouts of a building may influence the presence and movement of occupants, which can lead them to participate in a certain activity, energy-saving behaviour for instance, which occurs at a particular location within an indoor space. Moreover, rearranging this interior layout can help understanding how and why occupants use more energy and encourage their energy-saving behaviours through occupancy-based interventions. However, only a handful of studies have attempted to evaluate the effects of interior layout on the energy-saving behaviour of occupants. In light of this, this study offers a comprehensive modelling framework for investigating the influence of interior layouts on occupants' energy-saving behaviours by integrating Agent-Based Modelling (ABM), Systems Dynamics (SD), and Building Information Modelling (BIM). The occupant behaviour within this hybrid model is built based upon the theory of reasoned action. Moreover, while most of the ABM studies related to occupant behaviour are based on synthetic data, this study used real energy data collected from customized sensors to validate the proposed model. As a result, it has been shown that adjustment of interior layout (i.e., occupant intervention) can improve building energy performance by 14.9%. In terms of model validation, the proposed hybrid model has exhibited an acceptable level of accuracy with an average CV(RMSE) of 10.5%, MBE of 1.5%, and R2 of 0.77. This study differs from other existing studies in that it adopts an interior layout-based human behavioural investigation considering stochastic attitudes and subjective norms of occupants and provides a robust validation through empirical-based intervention.