Impact of Occupants Behavior on Building Energy Use: an Agent-Based Modeling Approach

Energy modeling techniques used during the design phase of buildings are failing to accurately predict energy use during the buildings operational phase. The main reason behind this discrepancy is the misrepresentation of the role and impact of occupants’ energy consumption characteristics on building energy use. Current energy modeling tools represent occupants as static elements, overlooking their different and changing energy use behaviors over time. These behavioral aspects significantly affect energy consumption levels, hence the need for a new energy modeling approach that overcomes the limitations of traditional energy modeling tools by better accounting for occupants actions and behaviors to predict buildings energy consumption. Therefore, this paper presents a new agent-based modeling approach that accounts for the diverse and dynamic energy consumption patterns among occupants, in addition to the potential changes in their energy use behavior due to their interactions with each other and with the building environment.