Occupant Behaviour Modelling in Buildings: Current Status and Future Challenges

You are kindly invited to join a public lecture by Professor Da Yan, Tsinghua University.

Professor Da Yan is a full Professor, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University. He is the Editor-in-chief of Building Simulation and Section Editor of Energy and Buildings. He is also the Chair of China HVAC Society’s Building Simulation Committee, Chair of IBPSA-China and co-chair of ASHRAE Occupant Behaviour in Building Technical Committee TC 7.10. Professor Yan’s research mainly focuses on the development of building performance simulation software DeST, research on quantitative description of occupant behaviour and low-carbon and energy-efficiency related policy. He has published over 240 journal articles and more than 10 books, with an H-index is 53 (by google). During 2013 to 2018, he is the OA of IEA EBC Annex 66 with more than 100 participants from more than 20 countries, working on “Definition and simulation of occupant behavior in buildings”. He was the receipt of the Second Prize of National Science Progress Award of China in 2008. He is an IBPSA Fellow since 2019.

Abstract: Occupant behaviour (OB) is one of the key contributing factors to building energy consumption. Occupant behaviour features complexity, diversity, and stochasticity. Over-simplified methods to quantify the impacts of occupant behaviour in building performance simulations significantly impacts the differences between simulation and measurement. Therefore, it is essential to propose a systematic approach to understand and simulate occupant behaviour in buildings. In this presentation, an overall technical framework of OB modelling in buildings is demonstrated, including data collection, model development and evaluation. The research progress of advanced sensors, big data, and algorithms are introduced. With the OB modelling shifting from building to urban, this presentation will also explore the stochasticity and heterogeneity of OB simulation at an urban scale. To further implement OB models in practical applications, a case study of level-of-detail (LoD) framework is proposed to identify the appropriate granularity to describe OB to fit in various practices. Finally, challenges and future development in OB modelling will be discussed.