Impact Of Occupants Behaviour On Zero Energy Buildings

This book highlights the importance of human behaviour in the building design process, with a focus on the construction of zero-energy buildings. It reports on and discusses the strategies the authors have adopted to develop behavioural models, and explains how to integrate them into building design. The analyses and findings presented in the book are supported by novel experimental data derived from building monitoring projects carried out by the authors’ research group. Further, the book suggests key methodologies and modelling approaches. The authors subsequently address occupants’ behaviour in zero-energy buildings from an energy perspective. They investigate many different aspects of the interactions between users and buildings devices, from assessing the triggering factors of occupants’ behaviours, to discussing modelling and simulation approaches. Methods for acquiring and analysing experimental data are presented, as well as a discussion on objective and subjective factors that trigger occupants’ behaviour. Other content includes: experimental investigations from real case studies to assess occupants’ interaction with building devices; an assessment of the driving factors that trigger human actions to identify the key parameters in the behavioural models; and critical suggestions on monitoring and modelling approaches to optimise data acquisition and modelling methods. The guidelines presented here will allow designers and researchers to improve the accuracy of their simulations of buildings energy performance, and support both building design and management processes. It will be of particular use to researchers involved in the development of behavioural models, as it presents experimental data and a comprehensive overview of behavioural modelling. The book will also be of interest to students who are studying the behavioural component of integrated building design.

Occupant behaviour in buildings is a point of interest for building designers around the world. Functional buildings have a significant energy demand; therefore, improving the thermal and energy performance of such buildings requires knowledge about the variables that influence them. However, to increase the potential for improving thermal and energy performance of buildings, studies must also consider the occupant’s interactions with the built environment. The occupant behaviour influences the conditions of the internal environment through the occupation of indoor building spaces and through the interaction with building elements, such as air-conditioning, lighting, blinds and windows. Occupant Behaviour in Buildings: Advances and Challenges brings together reviews of these influential aspects, presenting updates on advances and questions that pose challenges in our current understanding of behavioural modeling and its application to building design. Special topics covered in the book include methods to survey occupant behavior, building design choices, occupant behaviour impact on a building's thermal and energy efficiency, and,finally, a simulation of occupants in a building. Key Features- Presents up-to-date information on occupant behaviour in buildings- Eight chapters, written by renowned researchers, provide readers with useful insights on the subject- Includes a case study of buildings in Brazil- Structured reader-friendly content- References for further reading This reference is an informative resource for students and professionals in architecture, civil engineering, building information design, and urban planning. Readers interested in social and behavioural sciences will also gain insights on research methods that are helpful in investigating human behavior in urban dwellings.

This book is the first to comprehensively cover research methods for building occupant behavior. As this is of growing importance for building design and for building performance optimization, the book aims to provide a sound scientific basis for experimental studies in this field. It introduces the reader to fundamental questions about the topic and unfolds the different fields related to occupant actions and comfort. This is followed by more general questions about developing an appropriate research method and experimental design. A comprehensive overview of sensors for monitoring environmental and also behavioral and action-related quantities helps to set up an experiment. In this context, different experimental environments and data collection methods (in-situ, laboratories, surveys) are introduced and discussed in terms of their suitability for the respective research question. Furthermore, data management and reporting is addressed. The book concludes with fundamental challenges in conducting occupant studies, with chapters on ground truth, ethics and privacy.

Net Zero-Energy Buildings have been the object of numerous studies in recent years as various countries have set this performance level as a long-term goal of their energy policies. This book presents a unique study of 30 NZEBs that have been constructed and have had their performance measured for at least 12 months. The study is based upon an international collaborative research initiated by the International Energy Agency - the Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (SHC). It is the first book to evaluate building strategies in houses, educational buildings and offices that have been demonstrated to work in practice. It examines how the design challenges of climate and building type have been addressed, and to what extent the various design approaches have been successful. This book presents convincing evidence that a careful re-thinking of conventional design norms can achieve a far greater performance benefit than is normally feasible. It identifies `solution sets? that work at the whole building level and at the individual building design challenge level for each climate and building type. In doing so, the book provides guidance as to how to improve the design by learning from these cases. Unusually for a book of this type it has examples of buildings in what are conventionally labeled "hot" and "cold" climates. A simple process is proposed for the reader to commission the analysis of their own climate to assess not only the conventional measure of how hot or cold or humid it is, but also to assess its suitability to support other NZEB technical challenge solutions sets such as Daylight or Natural Ventilation or comfort based climate conditioning.

The recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on 19 May 2010. For new buildings, the recast fixes 2020 as the deadline for all new buildings to be “nearly zero energy” (and even sooner for public buildings – by the end of 2018). This book gives practitioner an important tool to tackle the challenges of building refurbishment towards nearly zero energy. This book is welcome at this time and sets the scene for professionals whether practitioners or researchers to learn more about how we can make whether old or new buildings more efficient and effective in terms of energy performance.

What do we mean by net zero energy? Zero operating energy? Zero energy costs? Zero emissions? There is no one answer: approaches to net zero building vary widely across the globe and are influenced by different environmental and cultural contexts. Net Zero Energy Building: Predicted and Unintended Consequences presents a comprehensive overview of variations in 'net zero' building practices. Drawing on examples from countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, and China, Ming Hu examines diverse approaches to net zero and reveals their intended and unintended consequences. Existing approaches often focus on operating energy: how to make buildings more efficient by reducing the energy consumed by climate control, lighting, and appliances. Hu goes beyond this by analyzing overall energy consumption and environmental impact across the entire life cycle of a building—ranging from the manufacture of building materials to transportation, renovation, and demolition. Is net zero building still achievable once we look at these factors? With clear implications for future practice, this is key reading for professionals in building design, architecture, and construction, as well as students on sustainable and green architecture courses.

Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB): Concepts, Frameworks and Roadmap for Project Analysis and Implementation provides readers with the elements they need to understand, combine and contextualize design decisions on Net Zero Energy Buildings. The book is based on learned lessons from NZEB design, construction, operation that are integrated to bring the most relevant topics, such as multidisciplinarity, climate sensitivity, comfort requirements, carbon footprints, construction quality and evidence-based design. Chapters introduce the context of high performance buildings, present overviews of NZEB, cover the performance thresholds for efficient buildings, cover materials, micro-grid and smart grids, construction quality, performance monitoring, post occupancy evaluation, and more. Offers a roadmap for engaging in energy efficiency in high performance buildings projects Combines solid grounding in core concepts, such as energy efficiency, with a wider context that includes the technical, socio-cultural and environmental dimensions Covers key areas for decision-making Provides a logical framework to analyze projects in the context of environmental change Presents worldwide examples and cases for different climates and societies

This open access book presents papers displayed in the 2nd International Conference on Energy and Sustainable Futures (ICESF 2020), co-organised by the University of Hertfordshire and the University Alliance DTA in Energy. The research included in this book covers a wide range of topics in the areas of energy and sustainability including: • ICT and control of energy;• conventional energy sources;• energy governance;• materials in energy research;• renewable energy; and• energy storage. The book offers a holistic view of topics related to energy and sustainability, making it of interest to experts in the field, from industry and academia.