Impact of occupancy patterns on buildings performances gaps: how the gap is sensitive to stochastic occupancy behavior?

Building Performance Gap (BPG) is a critical challenge in achieving green buildings. This study assesses the impact of Occupancy Behaviors (OB) on BPGs in a large hospital building using two Sensitivity Analysis (SA) approaches: One-at-A-Time (OAT) and Variance-Based Sensitivity Analysis (VBSA). The analysis focuses on two patterns of BPG: the Building Energy Performance Gap (BEPG) and the thermal comfort gap. OB parameters, including occupancy density, activity levels, and temperature setpoints, are examined to quantify their impacts on performance differences.

The findings show that variations in setpoints can shift the building’s energy intensity by up to 40% compared to the baseline. Furthermore, interactions among OB parameters contribute to a maximum fluctuation of 27% in energy intensity, as determined by the Sobol function when setpoints are defined accurately. Furthermore, uncertainties in OB parameters result in up to 2% deviation in indoor air temperature. These results highlight the significant impacts of OB in BPGs and emphasize the need for developing a prediction framework for quantifying the role of OB in BPGs.