Human-building interaction in Simulation-aided building design and operation: Opportunities of advanced modelling strategies

The performance gap describes the difference between how much energy buildings actually use and how much they were expected to consume and can mislead the building design and operation decision-making process. Occupant behaviour plays an important role in reducing this gap because traditional representations i.e., standard schedules and occupant-related power densities, simplify its diversity and stochastic nature. To this end, the research community is attempting to better understand the human-building interaction and improve its representation. Several barriers limit a wider application of such advances in the building industry, such as stakeholders lacking information on the added value of integrating advanced representations of the human-building interaction. This article summarises the fundamental concepts of the human-building interaction, highlights the added value of integrating advanced occupant behaviour models, and points out the most important aspects required to guide practitioners towards proper integration. Finally, this article presents an overview of the occupant-behaviour modelling research field for better informing the building design and operation decision-making process