Stochastic characteristics of manual solar shades and their influence on building energy performance

Abstract

Occupant behavior has a significant impact on building energy performance. The purpose of this paper is to quantify the stochastic characteristics of manual solar shades and their influence on building energy performance. A co-simulation for occupants' stochastic control of manual solar shades was conducted and the statistic indicators (non-parameter tests and autocorrelation function) were calculated in order to identify potential occupant behavior patterns. The results show that occupants' stochastic shade control behavior among different seasons is not statistically different and that shade control behavior is not completely stochastic. Meanwhile, the trend in the fluctuation of Sc changes with time. Furthermore, a new index was introduced to evaluate the effectiveness of manual solar shades in terms of energy performance. The result shows that the effectiveness of manual solar shades is only between 39.8% and 81.3%, compared with automatically controlled shades, and there is a large potential for improving the effectiveness of manual solar shades in different seasons.