IEA EBC annex 53: Total energy use in buildings—Analysis and evaluation methods

TLDR: In this article, the authors employed an interdisciplinary approach, integrating building science, architectural engineering, computer modeling and simulation, and social and behavioral science to develop and apply methods to analyze and evaluate the real energy use in buildings considering the six influencing factors.

About: This article is published in Energy and Buildings.The article was published on 2017-10-01 and is currently open access. It has received 271 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Building science & Building design.

Figures

Figure 1 Six influencing factors on building energy use

Table 2 General information on 13 case study office buildings

Figure 4 Climate comparison of the seven contributing countries

Figure 5 Frequency of data for the case study office buildings

Figure 2 Energy boundaries

Figure 9 DHW energy

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions mentioned in the paper "Iea ebc annex 53: total energy use in buildings – analysis and evaluation methods" ?

In this paper, the authors investigated how occupant behavior influences building energy consumption in order to bring occupant behavior into the building energy field so as to develop building energy research, practice, policy, etc. more closely aligned with the real world. 

Q2. What is the key strategy to mitigate global climate change?

Improving energy efficiency in buildings to reduce energy use and green-house-gas emissions is a proven key strategy to mitigate global climate change. 

Q3. What is the average lighting usage in the case study office buildings?

More than 60% of artificial lighting is on during working hours in the four large-scaled case study office buildings, regardless of the outdoor lighting conditions. 

Q4. What are the two purposes for modeling occupant behavior?

There are two purposes for modeling occupant behavior: (1) to understand driving forces for the behavior itself, and (2) to reveal the relationship between energy demand and usage, as well as the driving forces for variations. 

Q5. What are the different classes of occupants?

The various classes can be distinguished into biological, psychological, and social contexts, time, building/installation properties, and physical environment. 

Q6. What are the basic information for residential case buildings?

Basic information for twelve residential case buildings including category, number of floors, floor area, construction year, and data level were described. 

Q7. What is the purpose of the Annex 53 project?

Aiming to advance the knowledge in the field and develop and apply methods to analyze and evaluate total energy use in buildings and its driving factors, a group of about 100 researchers from 15 countries gathered together and worked from January 2009 to March 2013 on the Annex 53 project, under International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Energy in Buildings and Communities (EBC) Programme. 

Q8. What is the level of detail required for the occupant behavior modeling?

An analysis was carried out to identify the level of detail required for the occupant behavior modeling as a function of the following building life cycle phases: design, commissioning, and operation. 

Q9. What are the main approaches to modeling of user behavior in buildings?

As a summary, modeling of user behavior in buildings may be tackled by the following approaches: (1) Theory of the planned behavior, (2) MODE model of attitude-behavior process, (3) Modified norm-activation model, and (4) Knowledge-desire-ability-action model. 

Q10. What is the main reason for the lack of knowledge about building energy use?

Although building technologies have advanced significantly in last decades, one of the most significant barriers to substantially improving the energy efficiency of buildings is the lack of knowledge about the factors determining the energy use. 

Q11. What are the main factors that influence the building energy use?

Social aspects cover a huge field of parameters such as local habits on building use, energy price, dominating energy source in the certain area, the energy-related attitude of occupants, and political conditions. 

Q12. What are the different reasons for modeling occupant behavior with respect to total energyuse in buildings?

The different reasons for modeling occupant behavior with respect to total energyuse in buildings are design (conceptual, preliminary, and final), commissioning (initial and ongoing), and operation (control). 

Q13. Who is the dependent on the presentation of results?

The presentation of results is very much dependent upon the user being addressed: - The designer (architect, HVAC engineer, installer, etc.) who tries to optimize thesolution he or she is developing. 

Q14. What are the basic information for twelve office case study buildings?

Basic information for twelve office case study buildings including category, data level, location, gross floor area, number of floors, construction years, air conditioning system, cooling and heating sources were outlined.