Occupant-Centric Performance Metrics and Performance Targets

Abstract

Occupant behaviors have significant impacts on building operations and indoor environmental quality (IEQ), while occupants’ comfort and well-being are influenced by building operations as they are the main recipients of building services. Current building performance metrics mostly focus on physical building and systems, oversimplifying occupant features. To reinforce the importance of occupants and inform occupant-centric building design and operation, occupant-centric performance metrics are needed. This chapter, leveraging discussions on occupant needs in the previous chapters, proposes a suite of occupant-centric performance metrics to cover the main use cases in the building life cycle representing performance of resource use and environmental impact, IEQ, and human-building interaction. Calculations or measurements to quantify these metrics are described and corresponding visualization techniques are used to facilitate communications with architects, building designers and engineers, occupants, building operators, and policymakers. The chapter further discusses the basis of setting reasonable occupant-centric performance targets for these metrics and provides recommendations for stakeholder communication on building performance using these metrics.