Exploring occupant behavior in buildings: Methods and challenges

Andreas Wagner, William O'Brien, Bing Dong

Research output: Book/Report/EssayBook

75 Scopus citations

Abstract

This book is the first to comprehensively cover research methods for building occupant behavior. As this is of growing importance for building design and for building performance optimization, the book aims to provide a sound scientific basis for experimental studies in this field. It introduces the reader to fundamental questions about the topic and unfolds the different fields related to occupant actions and comfort. This is followed by more general questions about developing an appropriate research method and experimental design. A comprehensive overview of sensors for monitoring environmental and also behavioral and action-related quantities helps to set up an experiment. In this context, different experimental environments and data collection methods (in-situ, laboratories, surveys) are introduced and discussed in terms of their suitability for the respective research question. Furthermore, data management and reporting is addressed. The book concludes with fundamental challenges in conducting occupant studies, with chapters on ground truth, ethics and privacy.

Original languageEnglish (US)
PublisherSpringer International Publishing
Number of pages310
ISBN (Electronic)9783319614649
ISBN (Print)9783319614632
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Buildings energy efficiency
  • Energy comfort
  • Occupant comfort
  • Occupant studies
  • Research methods

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Engineering(all)
  • Social Sciences(all)
  • Computer Science(all)
  • Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)
  • Business, Management and Accounting(all)
  • Psychology(all)

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