Paper Conference

Proceedings of BSO Conference 2014: 2nd Conference of IBPSA-England

     

UNDERSTANDING OCCUPANTS' BEHAVIOURS USING DETAILED AGENT-BASED MODELLING

Alaa Alfakara, Ben Croxford

Abstract: This paper describes an initial agent-based model (ABM), of an ongoing research, to simulate occupants' behaviours in dealing with summer overheating in residential buildings. The ABM was built in REPAST (REPAST 2013) and was linked to Thermal Analysis Simulation software TAS (EDSL 2012), where a flat occupied by two adults was modelled. Currently, occupants' behaviours include controlling windows and mechanical cooling systems (AC) to achieve comfort. Two cases were considered; (a) a base-case that represented typical behaviours, and (b) an improved-case behaviour where agents attempted to save energy. Results showed that the method described here produced credible results: under improved-case behaviour the average frequency of the use of mechanical cooling was reduced by up to over 40%, and the resultant cooling load of the hottest day dropped by around 15%.
Paper:
bso2014_3