Search

The objective of this paper is to review the topics related to the optimized operation of intelligent buildings with respect to occupant comfort and energy consumption. To simultaneously optimize energy costs and indoor environmental quality, intelligent buildings should consider several continuously changing inputs including energy exchange processes across the building, sets of indoor and outdoor environmental parameters, energy prices, occupants' presence, preferences, and behavior inside the building. Therefore, a well-structured framework supported by computational intelligence and optimization methods, environmental monitoring, and behavior modeling techniques, as well as comfort, productivity, and behavioral studies, are required to make optimal decisions for the indoor environment. In this paper, the main concepts, challenges, the latest studies, findings, and developments related to the six topics of (1) Occupant comfort conditions; (2) Occupant productivity; (3) Building control; (4) Computational optimization; (5) Occupant behavior modeling; (6) Environmental monitoring and analysis, in offices, commercial and residential buildings are reviewed. Moreover, future directions and challenges related to the optimized operation of intelligent buildings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, in building energy modeling (BEM) programs, occupant behavior (OB) inputs are deterministic and less indicative of real world scenarios, contributing to discrepancies between simulated and actual energy use in buildings. This paper presents a new OB modeling tool, with an occupant behavior functional mock-up unit (obFMU) that enables co-simulation with BEM programs implementing functional mock-up interface (FMI). The components detailed in the development of the obFMU include an overview of the DNAS (drivers-needs-actions-systems) ontology and the occupant behavior eXtensible Markup Language (obXML) schema, in addition to details on the creation of the obFMU that contains the co-simulation interface, the data model and solvers. To demonstrate functionality of the tool, three examples of occupant behaviors were simulated, including: (1) turning on and off lights, (2) opening and closing windows, and (3) turning on and off the air conditioners. The obFMU can be used via co-simulation with all building simulation programs that implement the FMI, thus users are not limited to a particular tool. Another advantage is the use of obXML schema to represent occupant behavior, standardize the description of occupant behavior enabling information exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupant behavior is one of the major factors influencing building energy consumption and contributing to uncertainty in building energy use prediction and simulation. Currently the understanding of occupant behavior is insufficient both in building design, operation and retrofit, leading to incorrect simplifications in modeling and analysis. This paper introduced the most recent advances and current obstacles in modeling occupant behavior and quantifying its impact on building energy use. The major themes include advancements in data collection techniques, analytical and modeling methods, and simulation applications which provide insights into behavior energy savings potential and impact. There has been growing research and applications in this field, but significant challenges and opportunities still lie ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]