Although occupants play a critical role in a building’s energy consumption, their air-conditioning use behaviour is often ignored, with it usually approximated as being a continuous operation. This in turn leads to a large difference between the actual and expected levels of energy consumption, raising the need to study air-conditioning use behaviour of building occupants. In this survey, 3083 questionnaires dealing with air-conditioning use behaviour were received from 34 cities distributed throughout China. The results show occupancy rates of 20% to 75% in residences and around 80% in office buildings during the period of 8:00–18:00. Air-conditioning use behaviour only meets a liveable requirement in residences and reaches a comfortable level in office buildings. This leads to daily air-conditioning operation times of between 0.85 and 4.31 hours in residences, and between 1.67 and 7.22 hours in office buildings, indicating most air-conditioning systems do not run continuously but intermittently, and that the assumption of continuous operation is far removed from reality. Based on these survey results, the large differences between the realistic (intermittent) and assumed (continuous) use of air-conditioning are employed to reveal the weaknesses in the present standards and to examine the optimization of building energy efficiency.
LongESZangZXMaXF.Are the energy conservation rates (RVRs) approximate in different cities for the same building with the same outer-wall thermal insulation measures?Build Environ2005;
40: 537–544.
2.
LES. General descriptions of research method, buildings, analysis object, assumptions and weather conditions of background cities. Build Environ 2005; 40: 443–450.
3.
GB/T 50378-2006. Evaluation standards for green buildings.
Beijing:
Chinese Construction Industry Publication, 2006 [in Chinese].
4.
JGJ 134-2010. Design standard for energy efficiency of residential buildings in hot summer and cold winter zone.
Beijing:
Chinese Construction Industry Publication, 2010 [in Chinese].
5.
JGJ 26-2010. Design standard for energy efficiency of residential buildings in severe cold and cold zone.
Beijing:
Chinese Construction Industry Publication, 2010 [in Chinese].
6.
JGJ 75-2012. Ministry of Construction P.R. China, 2012. Design standard for energy efficiency of residential buildings in hot summer and warm winter zone.
Beijing:
Chinese Construction Industry Publication, 2012 [in Chinese].
7.
GB/T 50378-2014. Assessment standard for green building.
Beijing:
Chinese Construction Industry Publication, 2014 [in Chinese].
8.
YoshinoHGuanSLunYFMochidaAShigenoTYoshinoYZhangQY.Indoor thermal environment of urban residential buildings in China: winter investigation in five major cities. Energ Build2004;
36: 1227–1233.
9.
YoshinoHYoshinoYZhangQYMochidaALiNPLiZHMiyasakaH.Indoor thermal environment and energy saving for urban residential buildings in China. Energ Build2006;
38: 1308–1319.
10.
WangCYanDJiangY.A novel approach for building occupancy simulation. Build Simul2011;
4: 149–167.
11.
DuarteCWymelenbergKVDRiegerC.Revealing occupancy patterns in an office building through the use of occupancy sensor data. Energ Build2013;
67: 587–595.
12.
DayJKGundersonDE.Understanding high performance buildings: the link between occupant knowledge of passive design systems, corresponding behaviours, occupant comfort and environmental satisfaction. Build Environ2015;
84: 114–124.
13.
MasiniAMenichettiE.The impact of behavioural factors in the renewable energy investment decision making process: conceptual framework and empirical findings. Energ Policy2012;
40: 28–38.
14.
HongTZTaylor-LangeSCD’OcaSYanDCorgnatiSP.Advances in research and applications of energy-related occupant behaviour in buildings. Energ Build2016;
116: 694–702.
15.
SchweikerMShukuyM.Investigation on the effectiveness of various methods of information dissemination aiming at a change of occupant behaviour related to thermal comfort and exergy consumption. Energ Policy2011;
39: 395–407.
16.
PapakostasKTSotiropoulosBA.Occupational and energy behaviour patterns in Greek residences. Energ Build1997;
26: 207–213.
17.
MasosoOTGroblerLJ.The dark side of occupants’ behaviour on building energy use. Energ Build2010;
42: 173–177.
18.
PeschieraGTaylorJESiegelJA.Responses relapse patterns of building occupant electricity consumption following exposure to personal, contextualized and occupant peer network utilization data. Energ Build2010;
42: 1329–1336.
19.
AzarEMenassaCC.A comprehensive analysis of the impact of occupancy parameters in energy simulation of office buildings. Energ Build2012;
55: 841–853.
20.
PetersenJEShunturovVJandaKPlattGWeinbergerK.Dormitory residents reduce electricity consumption when exposed to real-time visual feedback and incentives. Int J Sustain High Educ2007;
8: 16–33.
21.
KleinLKwakJKavulyaGJazizadehFBecerik-GerberBVarakanthamPTambeM.Coordinating occupant behaviour for building energy and comfort management using multiagent systems. Automat Constr2012;
22: 525–536.
22.
WangDFederspielCCRubinsteinF.Modeling occupancy in single person offices. Energ Build2005;
37: 121–126.
23.
BlightTSColeyDA.Sensitivity analysis of the effect of occupant behaviour on the energy consumption of passive house dwellings. Energ Build2013;
66: 183–192.
24.
ChenSQ.Analyses on energy consumption characteristics and energy conservation evaluation of urban residential buildings based on the statistical methodologies. PhD Thesis,
Hunan University,
Changsha, 2008 [in Chinese].
25.
ChenSQYoshinoHLiNP.Statistical analyses on summer energy consumption characteristics of residential buildings in some cities of China. Energ Build2010;
42: 136–146.
26.
LiNLiBZYuWWangC. Building energy efficiency from residential thermal and moisture status in the Yangtze River Basin. In: 2010 International Conference on E-Product E-Service and E-Entertainment (ICEEE2010), Henan, China, 7–9 November 2010.
27.
LiN.Impacts of human behaviour on energy consumption of residential buildings in China’s hot summer and cold winter zone. PhD Thesis,
Chongqing University,
Chongqing, 2011 [in Chinese].
28.
LiuJYaoRMWangJLiBZ.Occupants’ behavioural adaptation in workplaces with non-central heating and cooling systems. Appl Therm Eng2012;
35: 40–54.
29.
Meteorological Library of China Meteorological Information Center.Special meteorological data set on Chinese building thermotechnical analysis.
Beijing:
Chinese Construction Industry Publication, 2005 [in Chinese].
30.
KaynakliO.A review of the economical and optimum thermal insulation thickness for building applications. Renew Sust Energ Rev2015;
16: 415–425.
31.
SadineniSBMadalaSBoehmRF.Passive building energy savings: a review of building envelope components. Renew Sust Energ Rev2011;
15: 3617–3631.
32.
ShekarchianMMoghavvemiMRismanchiBMahliaTMIOlofssonT.The cost benefit analysis and potential emission reduction evaluation of applying wall insulation for buildings in Malaysia. Renew Sust Energ Rev2012;
16: 4708–4718.
33.
TsilingirisPT.Parametric space distribution effects of wall heat capacity and thermal resistance on the dynamic thermal behaviour of walls and structures. Energ Build2006;
38: 1200–1211.
34.
XuXGSitKYDengSMChanMY.Thermal comfort in an office with intermittent air-conditioning operation. Build Serv Eng Res Technol2010;
31: 91–100.
35.
Al-SaneaSAZedanMF.Improving thermal performance of building walls by optimizing insulation layer distribution and thickness for same thermal mass. Appl Energ2011;
88: 3113–3124.
36.
OzelMPihtiliK.Optimum location and distribution of insulation layers on building walls with various orientations. Build Environ2007;
42: 3051–3059.
37.
CaoXLiuJJCaoXDLiQHuEFanFH.Study of the thermal insulation properties of the glass fiber board used for interior building envelope. Energ Build2015;
107: 49–58.
38.
FraisseGVirgoneJYezouR.A numerical comparison of different methods for optimizing heating-restart time in intermittently occupied buildings. Appl Energ1999;
62: 125–140.
39.
FraisseGVirgoneJBrauJ.An analysis of the performance of different intermittent heating controllers and an evaluation of comfort and energy consumption. HVAC&R Res1997;
3: 369–386.
