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Highlights • This study presents a detailed review on IRT for the investigation of building envelope defects. • The literature survey is conducted regarding existing IRT methodologies for building envelopes. • The previous studies with measurement methods, analysis schemes and analysis types are categorized in the literature matrix. • Recent advances and future trends on IRT methods are presented. Abstract Thermal radiation generated by limited resources is emitted from the surfaces and interpreted as temperature. On the other hand, the limited resources necessitate prevention of energy leakages causing noticeable temperature differences on surfaces. Providing sensitive information on temperature contrast, infrared thermography (IRT) is a prominent tool for detecting infrared energy on the surfaces of the objects. IRT is also very promising method for detecting thermal irregularities, air leakages and even moisture abnormalities on building envelopes. Since the concept of nearly zero energy buildings is to be the main target of energy policies in European Union published by European Commission, improving thermal performance of buildings becomes crucial in the last decade. Therefore, implementation of IRT for visualizing and analyzing concealed defects on building envelopes is very promising for improving the energy efficiency of buildings. Given recent regulations and benefits of emerging thermogram technologies mentioned above, a detailed review of the previous studies investigating the abnormalities of building envelopes by IRT is presented in this paper. Furthermore, the applications with measurement methods, analysis schemes and analysis types are classified to highlight the potential of IRT in inspection of building envelopes for providing energy efficient solutions. Finally, recent advances and practical future opportunities are presented for additional contribution of the IRT methods previously employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates an energy-inefficient council housing tower block in London, due for retrofit, by exploring the correlations between occupancy and energy consumption patterns, thermal comfort and building energy performance in the winter. The aim of this study is to evaluate the building performance and develop a reliable building simulation model to be employed in the second phase of the study for developing an energy-efficient and cost-effective retrofit strategy to support the council's plans. The research seeks to demonstrate the significance of using dominant occupancy and energy use profiles as opposed to relying on standardised profiles when calculating building energy consumption using building simulation software. The paper reports on the results from the first phase of the study where a quantitative methodology; including a questionnaire, structured interviews, indoor monitoring, and building simulation modelling was adopted. The results provide evidence that occupants’ socio-demographic characteristics have a considerable impact on household energy consumption and fuel bills. The results also show that indoor environmental issues experienced in many flats are partly attributed to the thermally inefficient building envelope and partly due to occupants’ patterns of operating their homes with evidence of excessive heating energy use in attempts to alleviate the indoor issues experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings accounted for half of global electricity consumption in recent years. Accurate occupancy information could improve the energy efficiency and reduce the energy consumption in built environment. Although prior studies have explored various sensing techniques for occupancy sensing, these solutions still suffer from serious drawbacks, e.g. their estimated occupancy information is coarse, extra infrastructure is required, and the privacy of occupants is exposed. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a novel and practical occupancy sensing system, WinOSS, which is able to provide fine-grained occupancy information thoroughly by leveraging existing commodity WiFi infrastructure along with the WiFi-enabled mobile devices carried by occupants. We have implemented WinOSS in a 1500 m 2 built environment for four weeks to validate its performance. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that WinOSS outperforms existing occupancy sensing techniques, and provides comprehensive fine-grained occupancy information (including occupancy detection, counting and tracking) in an accurate, reliable, cost-effective and non-intrusive manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupant behavior is now widely recognized as a major contributing factor to uncertainty of building performance. While a surge of research on the topic has occurred over the past four decades, and particularly the past few years, there are many gaps in knowledge and limitations to current methodologies. This paper outlines the state-of-the-art research, current obstacles and future needs and directions for the following four-step iterative process: (1) occupant monitoring and data collection, (2) model development, (3) model evaluation, and (4) model implementation into building simulation tools. Major themes include the need for greater rigor in experimental methodologies; detailed, honest, and candid reporting of methods and results; and development of an efficient means to implement occupant behavior models and integrate them into building energy modeling programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An overall panorama of the school buildings in Brazil was presented. • Energy billed data and survey evidence were used to build a statistical stock model. • The Weibull distribution was the most adequate to represent the continuous variables. • kWh/student·year was more suitable than kWh/m2·year to model Brazilian school buildings stock. • Thermal performance is an issue to be greatly improved in schools in Brazil. Understanding the actual conditions in school buildings regarding energy usage and environmental satisfaction gives way to the development of consistent building stock modelling. In the Brazilian context, a deep-rooted inefficient structure of energy management implies a lack of mapping the actual conditions of the public schools. Therefore, this paper aimed to assess the actual energy performance of school buildings in Brazil. This paper innovates by integrating questionnaire responses and billed energy data to allow the construction of an evidence-based stock model through a statistical approach, which was never performed for the Brazilian building stock. Moreover, the association of energy use intensity (EUI) with the core aspects of building characteristics, occupancy, environmental satisfaction and necessary improvements mapped the relevance of such aspects in energy usage patterns. Additionally, a discussion of the EUI indicators was addressed. Results showed an unprecedented broad panorama of the school building stock in Brazil and its main features. In terms of statistical analysis, the Weibull distribution was appropriate for representing the continuous variables of the stock. The EUI as a function of the number of students was more suitable than the floor-plan area to achieve a reliable energy performance analysis. Several tests were performed to assess if the energy management, environmental satisfaction and maintenance practices impacted the EUI or not. Finally, the main conclusion was that the stock model obtained was simple and fit the energy management structure in the Brazilian scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Energy efficiency in buildings is essential for economic, social, and environmental reasons. Under current European legislation, buildings have to be certified with an energy efficiency index. To provide a fair comparison of the energy performance in buildings we need a global and unified representation. In this paper we propose the Energy Efficiency Ontology (EEOnt) to provide a foundation upon which this requirement can be built. EEOnt extends the applicability of other ontological models of buildings incorporating energy efficiency data and knowledge that can be calculated with high spatial and temporal resolution in what we call an Energy Efficiency Landscape (EELB). These EELB''s provide significant information which allows a detailed diagnosis of the energy efficiency within the building. Consequently, EEOnt is capable of representing buildings and energy efficiency in a unified way. Furthermore, it supplies a tool for managing the energy efficiency in buildings and constructing national inventories. These two features link the global and particular needs of governments and users, thus becoming key to both improve the energy efficiency in buildings and to implement viable certification schemes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We reviewed methods used in social sciences that suit energy research. • Eight methods were found adequate to different purposes and life-cycle phases. • Different actors of the building sector can apply qualitative methods in their work. • Our findings support that both policies and buildings can be human-centred. Different stakeholders are involved in the energy consumption in buildings: occupants, designers, managers, operators, policymakers, technology developers and vendors. Therefore, it is necessary to understand their opinions and needs to optimise the energy consumption in buildings during their lifespan. Questionnaires and interviews have been applied; however, the literature still supports that energy research lacks social science approaches to improve their outcomes. Although limitations are inherent in qualitative methods (e.g., social desirability bias), much information such as human needs, preferences and opinions cannot be obtained through quantitative methods like building monitoring. Therefore, to have a deeper understanding of human-related aspects regarding the energy consumption in buildings, this literature review synthesises opportunities and main challenges of applying methods commonly used in social sciences. We reviewed papers published over the last five years (from 2014 to 2019) and presented information about questionnaires, interviews, brainstorming, post-occupancy evaluation, personal diaries, elicitation studies, ethnographic studies, and cultural probe. Increasing use of qualitative methods is expected to support the spread of human-centric policies and design/control of buildings, with a consequent overall optimisation of energy performance of buildings as well as the comfort of occupants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]