Existing Knowledge About Occupant Behavior and Energy Consumption

Abstract

Chapter 2 provides an overview of a literature study of the existing knowledge on energy consumption from the urban to the user scale, energy performance modelling methods, the energy performance gap, and insights to determinants of heating energy and electricity consumption. This review first helped to set up a reference point for the reasons to actual occupant behavior, how perception, lifestyle, norms, rules lead to various actions at home (Figure 1). Secondly, through this study, a framework for the relationship between occupant behavior and energy consumption was created (Figure 2), based on the determinants of behavior, i.e. occupant characteristics (educational, economic, social), dwelling characteristics (envelope, systems, lighting and appliances…). This literature study set the context and also the first steps of this research. The determinants found through this review (Table 2) gave input to the content and structure of the questions of the survey designed for the OTB dataset.