Ten questions regarding buildings, occupants and the energy performance gap

Abstract

Buildings’ energy use in the operation phase can significantly deviate from prior estimations obtained from calculation or simulation. This divergence is commonly labelled as the energy performance gap and multiple factors have been suggested to be responsible for it, including, prominently, occupants’ behaviour. However, the literature on the contributors to and magnitude of the energy performance gap is rather inconclusive. The purported role of occupants as the main culprit of the energy performance gap is likewise insufficiently substantiated. This paper poses and treats 10 questions to address these issues and contribute to a more rigorous discussion of the building-related energy performance gap.