A study on the effect of occupant window opening behavior on heating energy consumption using energy simulation

Abstract

The goal of the environmental buildings is to protect the environment through saving fossil fuel while creating a comfort environment for occupants. As a result, the physical performance of buildings has been greatly improved through continuous research and development, and consequently, the use of fossil fuels has been greatly reduced. However, in physical performance-based research and development, the difference between actual energy consumption and predicted energy consumption is significantly different by focusing on only performance of buildings and treating occupants who are the subject of energy consumption as passive elements. However, occupants are not passive elements in the building, but actively act to the environment, and this behavior has a great influence on the energy consumption. Therefore, if the occupant behavior is identified and predicted, it will greatly contribute to environmental buildings by reducing the difference between actual and predicted performance. Therefore, in this study, we are loading the ventilation rates, during window opening, which is derived from previous study, on energy simulation program (energy plus) and comparing the energy consumption which considers the occupant’s behavior (ventilation rates), the actual energy consumption of occupants, and the energy consumption of putting only physical performance of building on energy plus.