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INTRODUCTION

New regulations and a drive to reduce energy bills and CO2 emissions have meant that new buildings are being designed to be as energy efficient as possible and many use advanced, innovative technical systems to heat, cool and light the building. However, it has been frequently found that these new buildings are not meeting their proposed energy targets.

It is thought that one of the main reasons for this is that the end users of the building do not understand the systems installed and do not know how to use the technologies. In fact, research has shown that building users frequently behave in ways that actually increase energy use above that expected, and that as a consequence occupant behaviour is a key determinant of energy consumption.

Some designers have turned to fully automated systems with a view that it is possible to provide an ‘ideal' environment for building users and reduce energy consumption without human intervention[2]. However, many building studies have shown that fully automated building services often do not provide a high-quality, energy-efficient environment. Humans have evolved to be adaptive and to react to the ever-changing environment around them; as such, building users will find a way to make themselves comfortable by adapting their environment, even if this means overriding automated systems. This was reiterated in findings from the PROBE studies[3] where building users clearly demonstrated a preference for buildings where they had control of the environment.

This guide outlines the findings of a project that developed as a consequence of BRE researchers' visits to schools, offices and other new buildings, where it was observed that building users were frequently not using the building in accordance with its design intent and in some cases were inadvertently preventing systems from working properly or even actively overriding them. The objectives of the researchers were to outline and assess occupant behaviours and their potential impact on energy efficiency. This was achieved by investigating the ways in which people actually use their buildings; whether they are used as they were designed to be and, failing this, the reasons why they are not. These reasons could include a lack of understanding of the systems by both the end users and the facilities managers, poor communication of the services strategy due to inadequate information and training, and a lack of awareness by designers of the principles of behaviour that govern successful system and control design.