Survey of Occupant Behaviour on the Energy Use in Turkish Dwellings

Elif Özdemir (Mersin University)

Occupant behavior is one of the major factors influencing building energy consumption and contributing to uncertainty in building energy use prediction. There is a lack of knowledge of the effect of various energy saving measures, especailly because the influence of user behaviour and lifestyle has not been studies to the same extent as the technical aspects. The total energy consumption of buildings is an interaction between architecture, engineering, installations and user behavior. One of the major reasons for the above problem is, that today, the main focus is laid on the building’s energy consumption, while the energy consumption related to user behavior is largely ignored. This is partly due to lack of knowledge about the relationshio between user behavior and energy use, including the importance of building operation and maintenance, user activities and behavior and also the current climate.

To meet the high expectations for energy savings in the future, it is therefore important to obtain much more knowledge on the user related part of the energy consumption in order to include and affect this part of the consumption.

On the other hand during the design stage, architects and engineers need to consider how the building occupants will impact final energy use. Accordingly, building designers need data, models, tools and case studies able to provide an evidence-based understanding of the human dimensions of energy use.

This paper will focus on developing a new interdisciplinary approach to the analysis and assessment of user influence on the building energy consumption. The method will be based on surveys of energy use and user behavior which will provide an opportunity to establish a knowledge and experience base for the assessment of real obtained energy savings and hence better opportunity to direct future energy policy.