An occupant-based energy consumption model for user-focused design of residential buildings

Toufic Zaraket (1) , Bernard Yannou (1) , Yann Leroy (1) , Stéphanie Minel (2) , Emilie Chapotot (2)

1 LGI - Laboratoire Génie Industriel - EA 2606
2 ESTIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Occupants’ behavior exerts a significant influence on the energy performance of residential buildings. Industrial energy simulation tools often account for occupants’ as monolithic elements with standard averaged energy consumption profiles. Predictions yielded by these tools can thus deviate dramatically from reality. This paper proposes an activity-based model for forecasting energy and water consumption of households, and discusses how such an occupant-focused model may integrate a user-focused design of residential buildings. A literature review is first presented followed by a brief recall of the proposed modeling methodology and a sample of simulation results. The possible integration of the proposed model into the design and energy management processes of residential buildings is then demonstrated through a number of use cases.

Mots clés: Energy modeling; energy management; residential building; performance contract; households; occupant profile; user needs; consumption variability; domestic activity; human behavior; user-focused design

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]; Informatique; Modélisation et simulation

Toufic Zaraket, Bernard Yannou, Yann Leroy, Stéphanie Minel, Emilie Chapotot. An occupant-based energy consumption model for user-focused design of residential buildings. Journal of Mechanical Design, 2015, special issue on "User Needs and Preferences in Design Engineering", pp.1-11. ⟨10.1115/1.4030202⟩. ⟨hal-01152335⟩