Monitoring user behavior : monitoring and analysis of manual control strategies for lighting and blinds

So far, most building simulation models tend to 'treat people like fixed metabolic heat generators passively experiencing the indoor environment' (Newsham 94). These models neglect the fact that office users do actually influence their immediate working environment by operating the artificial lighting system and/or the shading and glare protection device for example. The exact nature of this user-building interaction may significantly influence the incoming solar gains and therefore the thermal and visual comfort conditions as well as cooling and heating loads. The influence is pronounced in buildings with large architectural glazings.This paper presents the experimental setup and preliminary results of a pilot study which aims to gain more insight into the degree and kind of manual control strategies of external blinds and artificial lighting systems which are currently practiced in office buildings.