Mitigating office performance uncertainty of occupant use of window blinds and lighting using robust design

Occupant behaviour represents one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in building energy use. Energy use uncertainty is an undesirable trait with regards to sizing equipment and estimating energy use and cost. This paper presents one approach to help address this uncertainty: use of passive building measures to minimize the occurrence of discomfort so that occupants do not have to adapt as frequently in potentially energy-intensive ways. A robust design method is proposed whereby occupant behaviour models are embedded in building performance simulation to test different building designs for their probabilistic energy use and adaptive actions. To demonstrate the method, the daylighting and solar shading domain is explored. The results indicate one possible approach to reducing the impact of occupant behaviour in buildings. However, the study also shows the need for more occupant monitoring and modelling research as well as more empirical evidence to validate robust design strategies.