Verification of the impact of occupancy-related assumptions on the energy performance of an office building in different climates

Building energy simulation is a commonly used method for predicting the energy performances of buildings. Simulation is adopted for its possibility to reproduce the physical behaviour of a building. Nowadays, many simulation tools are available, but there are some drawbacks to their usage, i.e. there are no applications of building simulation which involve the usage of the building by its occupants. These tools rely on assumptions with regard to human behaviour, for example in the case of thermal load calculations. In building physics, behaviour research is mainly focused on control-oriented user behaviour, as the interaction between the occupants of a building and its controls, like windows, lights and heating systems. This study focuses on the simulation of human activity behaviour in office buildings;aiming at verifying the impact of window opening assumptions on building energy performances in different climates.