Impacts of Occupant Behavior on the Effectiveness of Building System Retrofits

Residential building retrofits are carried out with the aim of improving the energy efficiency and cost impacts of poorly performing buildings. Strategies are developed using sophisticated modeling and simulation tools that accurately capture building envelope and mechanical system conditions, without much consideration for the behavior of end users. As users play a major role in actual performance, it is important to factor in occupant satisfaction and involvement in achieving the goals of these retrofits. 

The main purpose of this study will be to carry out a comparative analysis of an occupant-focused and a modeling-based residential retrofit. Recommendations for achieving energy efficiency, based on a post-occupancy evaluation of an existing building, will be compared against recommendations developed from a detailed energy analysis using the National Environmental Assessment Toolkit (NEAT) developed at the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University.