A critical review on questionnaire surveys in the field of energy-related occupant behaviour

Deme Belafi, Zsofia; Hong, Tianzhen; Reith, Andras

doi:10.1007/s12053-018-9711-z

Title: A critical review on questionnaire surveys in the field of energy-related occupant behaviour

Journal Article · Thu Jul 19 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Energy Efficiency

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-018-9711-z· OSTI ID:1506285

^[1]; Hong, Tianzhen ^[2]; Reith, Andras ^[3]

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest (Hungary)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Advanced Building and Urban Design (ABUD), Budapest (Hungary)

Occupants perform various actions to satisfy their physical and non-physical needs in buildings. These actions greatly affect building operations and thus energy use. Clearly understanding and accurately modelling occupant behaviour in buildings are crucial to guide energy-efficient building design and operation, and to reduce the gap between design and actual energy performance of buildings. To study and understand occupant behaviour, a cross-sectional questionnaire survey is one of the most useful tools to gain insights on general behaviour patterns and drivers, and to find connections between human, social and local comfort parameters. In this study, 33 projects were reviewed from the energy-related occupant behaviour research literature that employed cross-sectional surveys or interviews for data collection from the perspective of findings, limitations and methodological challenges. This research shows that future surveys are needed to bridge the gaps in literature but they would need to encompass a multidisciplinary approach to do so as until now only environmental and engineering factors were considered in these studies. Insights from social practice theories and techniques must be acquired to deploy robust and unbiased questionnaire results, which will provide new, more comprehensive knowledge in the field, and therefore occupant behaviour could be better understood and represented in building performance simulation to support design and operation of low or net-zero energy buildings.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Building Technologies Office

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1506285

Journal Information:: Energy Efficiency, Vol. 11, Issue 8; ISSN 1570-646X

Publisher:: SpringerCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 21 works

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Title: A critical review on questionnaire surveys in the field of energy-related occupant behaviour

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