The impact of occupants' energy use behaviour on building performance: a case study of a tower block in London

This study assesses the building performance of a residential high-rise tower block in London, which, through preliminary studies was found to consume significant energy for heating. The aim of the study is to explore the effect of the dominant occupancy and heating schedules of the building on predicting the heating energy consumption of the building in the winter months in comparison to the benchmark profiles. A series of questionnaire-based survey and building simulation analysis were performed to understand the occupants‘ energy use behaviour and its effect on building energy use. The results show that buildings‘ physical issues including damp and mould caused in-efficient building envelope. To reduce the dampness and condensation effect and increase the thermal comfort, the occupants use considerable heating energy and as a result, the actual energy use patterns of the building are different from the benchmarks profiles, which caused uncertainty in predicting the building performance.