A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Quantifying the impact of occupants’ spatial distributions on office buildings energy and comfort performance
Graphical abstract Display Omitted
Highlights The impact of occupants’ distributions on building performance is explored. Two new comfort performance metrics are introduced. Benefits of DCV for handling variable occupants’ distributions are explored. Recommendations are provided for handling uncertainty from occupants’ distribution.
Abstract Designers typically follow a simplistic approach regarding occupant distribution in building simulation models, such as a uniform distribution. However, this approach rarely reflects reality, as occupants are often distributed heterogeneously in building spaces. To this end, this study develops a methodology to examine the impact of occupant distribution on energy and comfort performance; it then applies the methodology to an office building model in Toronto, Canada. The building energy model was simulated under a set of seventy-five plausible occupants’ distribution scenarios (ODSs). The results indicate that ODSs can have a significant impact on occupants’ comfort as densely populated zones experienced significantly higher discomfort hours per occupant compared to the homogeneous distribution. On the other hand, the variable ODSs had a modest impact on energy performance as the highest difference in energy use intensity was observed to be about 9%, given that the model heating, ventilation, and air conditioning was hard-sized for all simulations. Finally, the benefits of deploying adaptive technologies such as demand-controlled ventilation were assessed in terms of mitigating the impact of variable ODSs.
Quantifying the impact of occupants’ spatial distributions on office buildings energy and comfort performance
Graphical abstract Display Omitted
Highlights The impact of occupants’ distributions on building performance is explored. Two new comfort performance metrics are introduced. Benefits of DCV for handling variable occupants’ distributions are explored. Recommendations are provided for handling uncertainty from occupants’ distribution.
Abstract Designers typically follow a simplistic approach regarding occupant distribution in building simulation models, such as a uniform distribution. However, this approach rarely reflects reality, as occupants are often distributed heterogeneously in building spaces. To this end, this study develops a methodology to examine the impact of occupant distribution on energy and comfort performance; it then applies the methodology to an office building model in Toronto, Canada. The building energy model was simulated under a set of seventy-five plausible occupants’ distribution scenarios (ODSs). The results indicate that ODSs can have a significant impact on occupants’ comfort as densely populated zones experienced significantly higher discomfort hours per occupant compared to the homogeneous distribution. On the other hand, the variable ODSs had a modest impact on energy performance as the highest difference in energy use intensity was observed to be about 9%, given that the model heating, ventilation, and air conditioning was hard-sized for all simulations. Finally, the benefits of deploying adaptive technologies such as demand-controlled ventilation were assessed in terms of mitigating the impact of variable ODSs.
Quantifying the impact of occupants’ spatial distributions on office buildings energy and comfort performance
Abuimara, Tareq (author) / O'Brien, William (author) / Gunay, Burak (author)
Energy and Buildings ; 233
2020-12-21
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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