Using Real Building Energy Use Data to Explain the Energy Performance Gap of Energy-Efficient Residential Buildings: A Case Study from the Hot Summer and Cold Winter Zone in China

The International Energy Agency (IEA) emphasizes that using real building energy use data (RBEUD) to reflect the actual condition of buildings and inform policy-making is the most effective way to reduce buildings’ carbon emissions. However, based on IEA’s evaluation, regional and national building stock data are limited and lacking. Especially...

Targeting modular adaptive façade personalization in a shared office space using fuzzy logic and genetic optimization

In shared office spaces, occupants' comfort criteria are limited to locally controlled zones while ambient features of the environment and the potential negative impacts of others' behavior require a well-designed control system, especially over adaptive façade elements. This means setting up control strategies for a wider spectrum of varying...

An Investigation of Occupants' Energy Perceptions in Energy Efficient Retrofitted Residential Buildings: A Review Paper

Buildings are the main sector in energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Retrofitting of existing building has been identified as one of the significant strategies for reducing the impacts of buildings on energy and environment. However, recent studies have shown that low energy buildings mostly do not perform as expected. These differences are...

The role of occupants in buildings’ energy performance gap: myth or reality?

Buildings’ expected (projected, simulated) energy use frequently does not match actual observations. This is commonly referred to as the energy performance gap. As such, many factors can contribute to the disagreement between expectations and observations. These include, for instance, uncertainty about buildings’ geometry, construction, systems,...

Behavioral patterns and profiles of electricity consumption in dutch dwellings

In EU member states, the consumption of electricity per dwelling has remained more or less constant, although the consumption of large appliances has decreased considerably in the last 2 decades. This stabilization is caused by the increased ownership, usage and consumption levels of Information, Communication and Entertainment (ICE)...

Low energy residences and their users

In order to meet the requirements set by the national government and European Union concerning energy reduction, the EPC of houses will have to drop to 0.4 by 2015 and 0 by 2020. To achieve these target, it is necessary to gain more knowledge about the real performance of current new realized buildings, to see how these buildings can be improved...