Conference Paper

Proceedings of Building Simulation 2019: 16th Conference of IBPSA

Simulation-based Approach to Assess Occupancy-adaptability of Buildings

William O'Brien ¹, H. Burak Gunay ¹, Mohamed Ouf ^2
1 Carleton University, Canada
² Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26868/25222708.2019.210266
Abstract: Office buildings rarely encounter near-capacity occupancy, despite the majority of building energy codes and design processes assuming as much. The hypothesis of this paper is that current occupancy schedules have the serious risk of misleading decision makers away from technologies that allow buildings to adapt to partial occupancy. To test the hypothesis and demonstrate alternative methods to model occupancy, this paper examines open-plan lighting control schemes and demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) under different occupancy scenarios using detailed building simulations. The results show that the benefit of DCV may be underestimated by a factor of two under full occupancy assumptions. Meanwhile, lights may be turned on two times longer than occupants are present if current standard schedules are used to guide lighting control zone sizes. Without technologies and operating strategies that adapt to partial occupancy, high-performance buildings will not reach their potential.
Keywords: occupancy, building adaptability, design process, building simulation, occupancy modelling
Pages: 2143 - 2150
Paper: