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Title: Typical occupancy profiles and behaviors in residential buildings in the United States

Journal Article · · Energy and Buildings
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
  2. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)

The energy performance of a residential building is highly dependent on occupant's presence or non-presence in a building and their interactions with energy-consuming appliances. Typical occupancy schedules for residential buildings must be defined for applications such as building energy modeling as well as for assessing energy savings associated with the use of occupancy sensing technologies and occupancy-dependent controls. Currently, commonly used simulation programs assume a typical occupancy schedule, however, there is significant opportunity for improvement to these schedules as this is generally based on engineering judgement. This research uses 12 years of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data to develop typical occupancy schedules for a range of household types and occupant age ranges. This is compared to currently utilized residential occupancy schedules. In many cases the developed schedules exhibit similar patterns, however, differences are also found to be as high as 41% for certain periods of time. For occupancy sensing applications, the spatial-temporal distribution of occupants in residential buildings is also evaluated. These locations vary based on temporal factors as well as demographic factors such as age and number of occupants. Finally, the results of this research work towards improved occupancy schedule development can benefit both industry professionals and researchers.

Research Organization:
Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
Grant/Contract Number:
AR0001256
OSTI ID:
1641755
Journal Information:
Energy and Buildings, Vol. 210, Issue C; ISSN 0378-7788
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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