A methodology to simulate annual blind use in large open plan offices

Abstract

Occupant behaviour (OB) models relating to daylighting and blind use have been developed for cellular office configurations. However, this is not the case for large open plan offices that represent different spatial, daylighting and occupancy characteristics. This paper presents a methodology to simulate annual blind use based on the daylight availability for large open plan offices. A novel multi-directional illuminance grid was used to simulate annual blind use; to account for multiple view-points and occupants. The results found that this method can be used to predict annual blind use in large open plan offices to improve building performance simulations and occupancy models.