The Role of Occupants in Buildings’ Energy Performance Gap: Myth or Reality?

Ardeshir Mahdavi,Fisayo C Sangogboye,Hadeer Amin,Marcel Schweiker,Rune Korsholm Andersen,Despoina Teli,Alessandra Luna-Navarro,Marianne Touchie,Mahnameh Taheri,Eleni Ampatzi,Matteo Favero,Verena M Barthelmes,Elie Azar,Dolaana Khovalyg,Christiane Berger,Astrid Roetzel,Henrik N Knudsen,Jakob Hahn,Silke Verbruggen

doi:10.3390/su13063146

Abstract

Buildings’ expected (projected, simulated) energy use frequently does not match actual observations. This is commonly referred to as the energy performance gap. As such, many factors can contribute to the disagreement between expectations and observations. These include, for instance, uncertainty about buildings’ geometry, construction, systems, and weather conditions. However, the role of occupants in the energy performance gap has recently attracted much attention. It has even been suggested that occupants are the main cause of the energy performance gap. This, in turn, has led to suggestions that better models of occupant behavior can reduce the energy performance gap. The present effort aims at the review and evaluation of the evidence for such claims. To this end, a systematic literature search was conducted and relevant publications were identified and reviewed in detail. The review entailed the categorization of the studies according to the scope and strength of the evidence for occupants’ role in the energy performance gap. Moreover, deployed calculation and monitoring methods, normalization procedures, and reported causes and magnitudes of the energy performance gap were documented and evaluated. The results suggest that the role of occupants as significant or exclusive contributors to the energy performance gap is not sufficiently substantiated by evidence.

Highlights

After systematically reviewing studies on the energy performance gap” (EPG), we focused on those papers that had provided quantitative evidence when suggesting that the performance gap is caused by occupant behavior (OB)
Most of the papers were published in the journals “Energy and Buildings” (33%) and “Building and Environment” (10%)
A key motivation behind the present paper was critical concerns with a relatively recent common narrative in the community of building-related energy efficiency stakeholders. This narrative unfolds along the following lines: our projections of buildings’ energy use frequently deviate from their actual energy performance—a circumstance referred to as the EPG

Summary

Introduction

There is not a unique and all-encompassing definition of the term “energy performance gap” (EPG). It has different connotations in different domains and contexts. The energy we refer to is what is required for the operation of buildings. This includes energy needed for space heating, cooling, lighting, ventilation, equipment, and appliances as well as domestic hot water (DHW). Whereas the deviation of buildings’ actual energy use from the predicted magnitude may have different causes, we focus on the potential role of building occupants with regard to the emergence and extent of the EPG

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion