Volume 15: Low Carbon Cities and Urban Energy Systems: Part IV

The Impact of Occupancy Energy Use Behaviour of High-Rise Dwellings In Southeast China Wuxia Zhang, John Calautit, Neveen Hamaza

Abstract

Reducing building energy use and the associated greenhouse gas emissions is becoming increasingly important. Since occupants’ behaviour has significant impacts on building energy performance and occupant comfort, and it varies with an individual’s age, sex, background, and other personal factors, it is important to understand the critical links between people’s lifestyles and energy consumption. Most studies of the relationship between occupancy behaviour and energy consumption focus on public buildings like office buildings and commercial buildings. Research for dwellings is limited since the information is difficult to collect, and detailed knowledge of individual homes is needed. This paper conducted a detailed survey to gain information on thermal satisfaction levels, occupancy equipment ownership and their using patterns of 112 urban households who lived in a typical booming city in southeast China. Based on the collected data, an energy simulation software program was used to investigate the main factors of occupancy behaviour, which affect energy consumption. The results lead to the internal gains profiles and window-opening profiles, which reflect the lifestyle in the target area who lived in an urban high- rise building. The simulation of typical households indicated that occupancy behaviour only occupied a small scale compared to equipment but still significant to improve.

Keywords Occupancy Behaviour, Building Energy Consumption, Southeast China, Urban High-Rise Dwelling