Review
Construction & Building Technology
Seddigheh Norouziasl, Amirhosein Jafari, Yimin Zhu
Summary: This study provides a systematic review of literature on modeling and simulating energy-related human-building interaction, analyzing 95 articles published in the last 15 years. The study offers a state-of-the-art framework for inputs and outputs used in modeling occupants' energy-use behavior and presents efficient techniques for future research in this area.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2021)
Review
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Omar Ahmed, Nurettin Sezer, Mohamed Ouf, Liangzhu (Leon) Wang, Ibrahim Galal Hassan
Summary: Occupant behavior is a major factor in building energy consumption, but it is often oversimplified in building performance simulation, leading to a performance gap between actual and simulated energy use. This review aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of recent studies on the different aspects of occupant behavior in building performance simulation, including data collection and analysis, modeling, integration, validation, and presentation. It offers valuable insights for researchers and professionals in accurately modeling occupant behavior and incorporating it into simulation tools.
RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Energy & Fuels
C. Piselli, A. L. Pisello, B. K. Sovacool
Summary: A comprehensive survey was conducted among more than 6,000 potential end-users in Europe to examine social practices and perceptions of heating devices. This study emphasizes the development of tailored user-building interaction models based on the findings of the survey. The results highlight the significant impact of these models on predicted building heating energy needs, demonstrating the influence of societal-related variables on energy use estimation.
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Nikhil Singh Yaduvanshi, June Young Park
Summary: This research examines the impact of citizen involvement in residential building retrofits in the United States, focusing on single-family houses. The study highlights the importance of the residential sector in greenhouse gas emissions and the potential of energy retrofits to mitigate this impact. Through a comprehensive review of 66 retrofit programs and text mining on social media data, the research identifies various citizen involvement approaches and citizen perceptions of retrofit practices. The concept of Citizen Building Scientist is introduced to represent proactive and environmentally aware citizens who actively participate in and share knowledge for sustainable practices.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2023)
Review
Construction & Building Technology
Mohammad Nyme Uddin, Hsi-Hsien Wei, Hung Lin Chi, Meng Ni
Summary: This paper provides a systematic review analysis on occupant behavior and different modeling approaches, highlighting six significant research gaps for future development. The study emphasizes the critical role of occupants' behavior in building energy conservation, yet there are relatively fewer studies in this area compared to physical factors.
Review
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Habtamu Tkubet Ebuy, Hind Bril El Haouzi, Riad Benelmir, Remi Pannequin
Summary: Occupant behavior has a significant impact on a building's energy system, leading to increased energy consumption. However, building energy performance analysis often overlooks occupant behavior. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a systematic literature review on energy-related occupant behaviors and their implications for energy performance.
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Canjun Li, Han Zhu, Xiangchao Lian, Yuxin Liu, Xiaohan Li, Yanbo Feng
Summary: To achieve occupant-centric building and control, it is important to consider occupant behavior characteristics and develop operational strategies accordingly. By studying the time-lag of shading behavior, an advanced prediction model was proposed, improving prediction accuracy. Furthermore, an operational logic that meets energy savings and comfort requirements was derived by describing the dynamic distribution of office room occupancy.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Handi Chandra Putra, Tianzhen Hong, Clinton Andrews
Summary: This paper presents an extension of the DNAS framework for the representation of synthetic occupant data to support various applications and use cases. The extension introduces new elements to the framework that fall into five categories, including socio-economic, geographical location, activities, subjective values, and individual and collective adaptive actions. Ongoing research includes identifying occupant datasets and developing data fusion methods to generate synthetic occupants, as well as demonstrating its applications in agent-based modeling coupled with building performance simulation.
AUTOMATION IN CONSTRUCTION
(2021)
Review
Construction & Building Technology
Weiyu Ji, Lu Yang, Zhansheng Liu, Shuxin Feng
Summary: Human-building interaction is a rising field that explores the interactions and impacts between humans and building systems. Sensing technology is crucial for data collection in this discipline. This study evaluates 127 research articles and provides a systematic review of sensing technology implementation in various HBI research topics.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jan Priesmann, Lars Nolting, Christina Kockel, Aaron Praktiknjo
Summary: The analysis of future energy systems requires appropriate data, with a focus on energy consumption patterns for heat, cold, mechanical energy, information and communication, and light. The dataset provides comprehensive data on residential, industrial, commerce, and mobility consumers, aggregated and disaggregated to the NUTS2 level for validation and calculations. Multiple data sources are combined to enhance the scope, validity, and reproducibility of energy system modeling, particularly for scenarios involving renewable electricity replacing fossil fuels.
Review
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Agnes Ramokone, Olawale Popoola, Ayokunle Awelewa, Ayodele Temitope
Summary: This study offers a chronological review of AI-based and conventional models in energy consumption prediction, emphasizing the importance of identifying drivers of consumption for building energy performance. Valuable recommendations for future research directions are provided based on the applications, strengths, and disadvantages of these models.
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES AND ASSESSMENTS
(2021)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Juan Mahecha Zambrano, Ulrich Filippi Oberegger, Graziano Salvalai
Summary: This paper reviews the current state of applying occupant behavior models in building energy performance simulations, examines the challenges and solutions for integrating these models, and emphasizes the added value in the decision-making process of building design.
ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
(2021)
Article
Thermodynamics
Walid Belazi, Salah-Eddine Ouldboukhitine, Alaa Chateauneuf, Abdelhamid Bouchair
Summary: This paper investigates the interaction between residential apartments in the same building, taking into account occupant behavior. The study focuses on a three-floor residential building. A multi-zone building model is utilized and validated against thermal simulation tools. The deterministic study helps identify the worst case scenario for energy consumption. The interior insulation thickness is then adjusted to optimize heat loss and achieve balanced energy consumption among apartments. Furthermore, the influence of random variations in family absence is evaluated in terms of energy demand and heat interaction between apartments.
CASE STUDIES IN THERMAL ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Ali Raza Kalair, Mehdi Seyedmahmoudian, Alex Stojcevski, Saad Mekhilef, Naeem Abas, Kek Koh
Summary: This research examines the energy performance, thermal comfort, and payback of a multi-energy nanogrid house integrated with a trombe wall. The study aims to improve the annual comfort level by meeting the thermal and electric energy consumption of a 5-person family. The results show sustainable heating and cooling temperatures with minimal dependence on auxiliary boiler and cooling energy use. The study uses TRNSYS software for dynamic energy simulations and evaluates simple payback. The findings demonstrate the potential of the integrated system to meet the majority of the thermal demands and reduce reliance on external energy sources.
JOURNAL OF BUILDING ENGINEERING
(2023)
Review
Construction & Building Technology
Yuan Jin, Da Yan, Adrian Chong, Bing Dong, Jingjing An
Summary: This article reviews the literature on future building occupancy predictions, focusing on research purposes, physical routine, and methodology. Through summarizing and analyzing research objectives and occupancy prediction methods, as well as highlighting current challenges and prospects, the importance of accurate and robust future occupancy predictions for building system operations and energy conservation is emphasized.
ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
(2021)
Article
Thermodynamics
Haoran Li, Juan Hou, Zhiyong Tian, Tianzhen Hong, Natasa Nord, Daniel Rohde
Summary: This study aimed to optimize prosumers' economic performance under the current heating price models by introducing water tank thermal energy storage, resulting in annual heating cost savings of up to 9% for prosumers and a return on investment in less than ten years.
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Pouya Vahmani, Xuan Luo, Andrew Jones, Tianzhen Hong
Summary: This study assesses the implications of anthropogenic heating for urban micro-climate dynamics using building energy modeling and a high-resolution urban micro-climate modeling framework. The findings show that anthropogenic heating from building exhaust has a more significant impact on local air temperature during the night, compared to anthropogenic heating from HVAC systems. Moreover, the two components of anthropogenic heating exhibit offsetting behaviors under increasing outdoor temperatures. A detailed understanding of the composition of anthropogenic heating specific to an urban environment is necessary to predict its diurnal dynamics and response to a warming climate.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Jeetika Malik, Ardeshir Mahdavi, Elie Azar, Handi Chandra Putra, Christiane Berger, Clinton Andrews, Tianzhen Hong
Summary: This paper discusses the complexity of occupant behavior in building performance simulation and the application of agent-based modeling (ABM). It presents ten important questions to guide and inspire future ABM research.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Maggie Sheng, Michael Reiner, Kaiyu Sun, Tianzhen Hong
Summary: Extreme hot and cold weather events are increasing in frequency, intensity, and duration due to climate change. A study analyzed the thermal resilience performance of an assisted living facility during a six-day heat wave in 2015 and a three-day cold snap in 2021 with power outages. The study evaluated the impacts of 13 energy efficiency measures on thermal resilience and backup power capacity. The findings highlight the importance of building technologies and design strategies that consider energy use, thermal resilience, and backup power needs for climate resilience and decarbonization.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Davide Coraci, Silvio Brandi, Tianzhen Hong, Alfonso Capozzoli
Summary: In recent years, advanced control strategies based on Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) have been effective in optimizing the management of energy systems in buildings. However, the scalability and implementation of DRL controllers are limited by the time required for convergence. This paper proposes an Online Transfer Learning (OTL) strategy that transfers a DRL control policy from a source building to various target buildings in a simulation environment.
Review
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
A. T. D. Perera, Tianzhen Hong
Summary: This study reviewed the existing research on the vulnerability and resilience of the energy ecosystem in the face of extreme climate events. It found that the increased interactions during the transformation of the energy landscape into an ecosystem could significantly increase the vulnerability of the energy infrastructure. The present state of the art models used by energy system modelers are unable to assess such a complex ecosystem. Therefore, the study introduces a novel COVID analogy to understand disruption propagation within and beyond the energy ecosystem, and organizes the existing state of the art based on this analogy. The study also highlights the need for considering future climate variations and assessing vulnerability in interconnected energy infrastructure.
RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Energy & Fuels
A. T. D. Perera, Kavan Javanroodi, Dasaraden Mauree, Vahid M. Nik, Pietro Florio, Tianzhen Hong, Deliang Chen
Summary: Dense urban morphologies exacerbate the urban heat island phenomenon, making cities more susceptible to extreme climate events. A modelling framework is developed to assess the combined impact of climate variations and urban densification on renewable energy integration in European cities, revealing significant changes in wind speed and temperature and increased energy demand. Failure to consider extreme climate events will reduce power supply reliability, particularly in dense urban areas of southern Europe.
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Wooyoung Jung, Zhe Wang, Tianzhen Hong, Farrokh Jazizadeh
Summary: This study introduces representative occupancy schedules in the U.S. residential buildings derived from a large smart thermostat dataset and time-series K-means clustering, and develops an open-source tool to generate a stochastic residential occupancy schedule. Over 90,000 residential occupancy schedules were estimated from the ecobee Donate Your Data dataset, and the representative occupancy schedules were identified through clustering. The derived representative occupancy schedules and the ROSS tool can help improve the energy modeling of residential buildings.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Amanda F. Krelling, Roberto Lamberts, Jeetika Malik, Tianzhen Hong
Summary: The increasing frequency and severity of weather extremes caused by climate change highlight the need to assess buildings beyond their normal thermal and energy performance. This study proposes a simulation framework to evaluate and enhance the thermal resilience of buildings against indoor overheating, and also addresses how to aggregate resilience profiles of single buildings into the urban scale, supporting the evaluation of thermally resilient communities.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Tianzhen Hong, Jeetika Malik, Amanda Krelling, William O. 'Brien, Kaiyu Sun, Roberto Lamberts, Max Wei
Summary: With climate change causing more frequent and intense extreme weather events, maintaining safe indoor environmental conditions is crucial for occupants. Analyzing the impact of these events on the thermal resilience of buildings helps understand risks and inform mitigation and adaptation actions. Additionally, analyzing the technological, social, and policy dimensions of thermal resilience is critical.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Review
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Shan Hu, Xin Zhou, Da Yan, Fei Guo, Tianzhen Hong, Yi Jiang
Summary: Building Energy Sufficiency (BES) is gaining attention as an important framework for reducing energy use and carbon emissions in buildings. However, there is a lack of research on the drivers, technologies, and policy instruments needed to achieve BES during the building operational phase. This study provides a systematic review of BES and suggests that it should address both occupant demand and energy requirements. The characteristics of occupant demand and technical options for building systems are discussed, along with policy implications and recommendations. Further research and policy implementation in both developed and developing countries are justified due to the multiple benefits and multidisciplinary nature of BES.
RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Tianzhen Hong, Sang Hoon Lee, Wanni Zhang, Kaiyu Sun, Barry Hooper, Janghyun Kim
Summary: Rapid electrification of buildings at the district scale is crucial for cities to achieve climate change mitigation goals. This study quantifies and informs building electrification impacts at the district scale using detailed building energy modeling, showing that a combination of electrification and energy efficiency upgrades is effective in reducing carbon emissions and peak electric demand. The results highlight the importance of considering the mix of building uses within a district in order to maximize the benefits of electrification.
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Ziqi Lin, Tianzhen Hong, Xiaodong Xu, Jiayu Chen, Wei Wang
Summary: The use of Urban Building Energy Models (UBEM) is an effective method to evaluate the performance and efficiency of building upgrades in urban contexts. However, as the scale and number of buildings increase, there is a greater need for collecting more parameters, resulting in higher uncertainties. This study created a UBEM for a campus in China, analyzing the uncertainties of energy-savings for different building energy retrofit measures. The study provides valuable insights for evaluating energy-efficient retrofits and other energy-related studies that consider uncertainties.
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY
(2023)
Editorial Material
Psychology, Biological
Jeetika Malik, Tianzhen Hong, Max Wei, Sea Rotmann
Summary: Human behavioral change is crucial for reducing carbon emissions from buildings. We propose a sufficiency-oriented approach that promotes equitable decarbonization of buildings while respecting planetary boundaries.
NATURE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Jiwon Park, Kwang Ho Lee, Sang Hoon Lee, Tianzhen Hong
Summary: This study assessed the energy-saving and climate-adaptive potential of cool skin and ventilated cavity skin facade technologies in high-rise apartment buildings. The results indicate that these technologies can save cooling energy in summers but increase heating energy consumption in winters. Ventilated cavity skin outperforms cool skin, offering better cooling energy savings and reduced heating penalties.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Parth Bansal, Steven Jige Quan
Summary: This study investigates the relationship between urban form and canopy layer urban heat island (CUHI) using a relatively large sample of microclimate sensors in Seoul, Korea. The study compares different statistical models and finds that the spatially explicit gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) model has the highest accuracy. The study also shows that the effect of urban form on CUHI varies at different time instances during the day. These findings provide valuable insights for planners to understand the complexity of urban climate and reduce CUHI magnitude.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Miaomiao Liu, Salah Almazmumi, Pinlu Cao, Carlos Jimenez-bescos, John Kaiser Calautit
Summary: Windcatchers provide effective low-energy ventilation and summer passive cooling in temperate climates. However, their use in winter is limited due to significant ventilation heat loss and potential discomfort. This study evaluates the applicability of windcatchers in low-temperature conditions, highlighting the need for control strategies to reduce over-ventilation and the integration of heat recovery or thermal storage to enhance winter thermal conditions.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Review
Construction & Building Technology
Behrouz Nourozi, Aneta Wierzbicka, Runming Yao, Sasan Sadrizadeh
Summary: This article presents a systematic review of ventilation solutions in hospital wards, aiming to enhance pathogen removal performance while maintaining patient and healthcare staff comfort using air-cleaning techniques. The study reveals the importance of proper ventilation systems in reducing infection risk and adverse effects of cross-contamination.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Zhen Yang, Weirong Zhang, Hongkai Liu, Weijia Zhang, Mingyuan Qin
Summary: The study examines the influence of personalized local heating on the thermal comfort of occupants in old residential buildings. The findings reveal that personalized local heating can increase the overall thermal sensation of occupants, but only a few methods are effective in enhancing thermal comfort. The chosen heating methods and background temperature affect the participants' selection of heating parts.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Hong Cheng, Dan Norback, Huilin Zhang, Liu Yang, Baizhan Li, Yinping Zhang, Zhuohui Zhao, Qihong Deng, Chen Huang, Xu Yang, Chan Lu, Hua Qian, Tingting Wang, Ling Zhang, Wei Yu, Juan Wang, Xin Zhang
Summary: The home environment and sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms in five southern Chinese cities have been studied over time. The study found a decrease in asthma prevalence and an increase in allergic rhinitis. Cockroaches, rats, mice, mosquitoes or flies were identified as consistent biological risk factors for SBS symptoms, while redecoration, buying new furniture, and traffic air pollution were identified as other risk factors.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Chaojie Xing, Zhengtao Ai, Zhiwei Liu, Cheuk Ming Mak, Hai Ming Wong
Summary: This study experimentally investigated the emission characteristics of droplets around the mouth during dental treatments. The results showed that the peak mass fraction of droplets occurs within the size range of 20 μm to 100 μm, and droplets with a diameter less than 200 μm account for over 80% of the mass fraction. The dominant emission direction of droplets is towards the dummy's head and chest, forming an approximately cone shape.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Zhijian Liu, Zhe Han, Lina Hu, Chenxing Hu, Rui Rong
Summary: This study compared the effects of different respiratory behaviors on the distribution of aerosols in a ward and the risk of infection for healthcare workers using numerical simulation. It was found that talking in the ward significantly increased aerosol concentrations, particularly short periods of talking. Wards designed with side-supply ventilation had lower overall infection risk. Talking alternately between healthcare workers and patients slightly extended the impact time of aerosols.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Yan Yan, Mengyuan Kang, Haodong Zhang, Zhiwei Lian, Xiaojun Fan, Chandra Sekhar, Pawel Wargocki, Li Lan
Summary: In a high-density city, opening windows for sleep may lead to increased indoor temperature, higher PM2.5 concentration, and noise disturbance, which can negatively impact sleep quality.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Yan Bai, Liang Liu, Kai Liu, Shuai Yu, Yifan Shen, Di Sun
Summary: This study developed a non-intrusive personal thermal comfort model using machine learning techniques combined with infrared facial recognition. The results showed that the ensemble learning models perform better than traditional models, and the broad learning model has a higher prediction precision with lower computational complexity and faster training speed compared to deep neural networks. The findings provide a reference for optimizing building thermal environments.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Yue Lei, Zeynep Duygu Tekler, Sicheng Zhan, Clayton Miller, Adrian Chong
Summary: Mixed-mode ventilation is a promising solution for achieving energy-efficient and comfortable indoor environments. This study found that occupants can thermally adapt when switching between natural ventilation (NV) and air-conditioning (AC) modes within the same day, with the adaptation process stabilizing between 35 to 45 minutes after the mode switch. These findings are important for optimizing thermal comfort in mixed-mode controls, considering the dynamic nature of thermal adaptation.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Nan Mo, Jie Han, Yingde Yin, Yelin Zhang
Summary: This study develops a method based on the LCZ framework for a comprehensive evaluation of urban-scale heat island effects, considering the impact of geographic factors on LST. The results show that Guilin's geomorphological conditions lead to abnormal heat island effects during winter, and the cooling effects of mountains and water bodies vary seasonally in different built areas, with LCZ 2 exhibiting the strongest cooling effect.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Tunga Salthammer
Summary: Monitoring the potential formaldehyde emission of wood-based materials through test chamber investigations has significantly contributed to reducing indoor formaldehyde concentrations. However, the different methodologies used in these procedures prevent direct result comparison. Empirical models for converting formaldehyde steady-state concentrations based on temperature, humidity, air change rate, and loading were developed in the 1970s and have been modified to accommodate the development of lower-emitting materials. Formaldehyde emissions from wood-based materials are complex and require nonlinear regression tools for mathematical analysis.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Katarina Stebelova, Katarina Kovacova, Zuzana Dzirbikova, Peter Hanuliak, Tomas Bacigal, Peter Hartman, Andrea Vargova, Jozef Hraska
Summary: This study investigated the impact of reduced short-wavelength light on the hormone melatonin metabolite 6-sulfatoxymelatonin (u-sMEL) and examined the association between previous day's light exposure and u-sMEL. It was found that reducing short-wavelength light during the day did not change the concentration of u-sMEL. Personal photopic illuminance was positively correlated with u-sMEL in the reference week. The illuminance had a significant impact on u-sMEL, as shown by the evaluation of the mean of all three urine samples. However, this correlation was not found in the experimental week.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Ruoxin Xiong, Ying Shi, Haoming Jing, Wei Liang, Yorie Nakahira, Pingbo Tang
Summary: This study proposes a data-model integration method to identify and calibrate uncertainties in machine learning models, leading to improved thermal perception predictions. The method utilizes the Multidimensional Association Rule Mining algorithm to identify biased human responses and enhances prediction accuracy and reliability. The study also evaluates different calibration techniques and discovers their potential in enhancing prediction reliability.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Beichao Hu, Zeda Yin, Abderrachid Hamrani, Arturo Leon, Dwayne McDaniel
Summary: This paper introduces an innovative super-resolution approach to model the air flow and temperature field in the cold aisle of a data center. The proposed method reconstructs a high-fidelity flow field by using a low-fidelity flow field, significantly reducing the computational time and enabling real-time prediction.
BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
