A structured approach to the evidence for the purported role of occupants in energy performance gap

Abstract

The term energy performance gap appears frequently in literature to describe the gap between energy predictions and actual energy consumption of newly constructed and retrofitted buildings. It has been suggested that occupants' behaviour is responsible for a large share of this gap. In order to obtain a better understanding of the scope and causes of the energy performance gap, a closer look at the occupants' role is needed. In this paper, the purported role of occupants in energy performance gap is assessed via examination of the quality of evidence provided in the respective studies. Toward this end, a quantitative assessment approach is undertaken, whereby numerical rating is assigned to a number of studies in this area. The rating is based on a set of criteria that are believed to be indicative of the strength of the provided evidence. The results of the assessment show that 98% of the studies point to the occupant behaviour as the main cause of the energy performance gap. However, only 6% of the studies provided evidence, whose strength can be characterized as "high". The claimed central role of occupants in buildings' energy performance gap is thus insufficiently supported by the available empirical evidence.