Occupant behavior modeling for building performance simulation: Current state and future challenges

• Review state-of-the-art research on occupant energy behaviors in buildings.
• Discuss current obstacles, future needs and directions in occupant behavior simulation.
• 4 key areas: data collection, model development, evaluation and integration with tools.
• Propose new research areas to advance occupant behavior modeling and simulation.

Occupant behavior is now widely recognized as a major contributing factor to uncertainty of building performance. While a surge of research on the topic has occurred over the past four decades, and particularly the past few years, there are many gaps in knowledge and limitations to current methodologies. This paper outlines the state-of-the-art research, current obstacles and future needs and directions for the following four-step iterative process: (1) occupant monitoring and data collection, (2) model development, (3) model evaluation, and (4) model implementation into building simulation tools. Major themes include the need for greater rigor in experimental methodologies; detailed, honest, and candid reporting of methods and results; and development of an efficient means to implement occupant behavior models and integrate them into building energy modeling programs.