The Effect Of Occupant Behaviors On Evaluating Adaptability Of Centralized Building Energy Saving Technologies

With the deepening of the building energy research, occupant behavior hasproven to be one of the key factors affecting the building energy consumption.Different patterns of behavior constitute a distinct end load characteristics which has ahuge impact on the application of the system equipment and energy-savingtechnologies.Most of the studies on how occupant behaviors affect technology adaptability areconfined to theoretical calculation and simulation research. More actual measurementresearches are needed. Focusing on centralized system, this paper describes anddemonstrates behavior patterns’ huge impact on the technical suitability based on themeasured data. Two kinds of centralized systems and more than10typical cases arediscussed: district heating water system and water source heat pump district coolingsystem in Beijing, Zhengzhou and Wuhan.The results show that: occupant behavior is very significant for centralizedsystem efficiency. Chinese residents’ scattered, random and low-volume usagepatterns makes the end load level of the centralized system low, which will bring aseries of problems: low transmission efficiency, low host machine efficiency, highsystem running cost, low customer satisfaction. Occupant behavior difference is themain reason of why a technology succeeds in developed countries but fails in China.To a certain degree, occupant behavior is the crucial factor of the success ofcentralized system.The only way to evaluate energy saving is low energy consumption ratherthan high efficiency. High energy consumption occupant behavior will also bring highenergy consumption at the same time when improve system efficiency and that’s whyit would not be encouraged. Select the right technology to match the existing occupantbehavior is the right way to solve the occupant behavior impact on technologyadaptability.