Stéphanie Minel

An Occupant-Based Energy Consumption Model for User-Focused Design of Residential Buildings

Occupants’ behavior exerts a significant influence on the energy performance of residential buildings. Industrial energy simulation tools often account for occupants’ as monolithic elements with standard averaged energy consumption profiles. Predictions yielded by these tools can thus deviate dramatically from reality. This paper proposes an activity-based model for forecasting energy and water consumption of households, and discusses how such an occupant-focused model may integrate a user-focused design of residential buildings. A literature review is first presented followed by a brief recall of the proposed modeling methodology and a sample of simulation results. The possible integration of the proposed model into the design and energy management processes of residential buildings is then demonstrated through a number of use cases.

AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO ASSESS THE DISPARITIES IN THE USAGE TRENDS OF DOMESTIC ELECTRIC LIGHTING

In a country like France, electricity consumption d evoted to domestic lighting represents nearly a fifth of the total energy consumption of a building. The use of electric ligh ting is influenced by several factors such as the building’ s structural characteristics, the activities of its occupants, tlighting equipments, and the level of natural light. Designe rs do take into account, in their energy models, the influence of occupants on the building’s overall energy consumption. Howev er, these models still have some drawbacks regarding the comp rehension of real “occupants’ energy behaviors” which play an important role in the discrepancies between predicted and rea l energy consumptions. The behavioral factors behind occupan ts’ usage trends of energy are still not thoroughly explored. Therefore, it is assumed that a better comprehension of these beh aviors and consumption mechanisms could lead to the identifica tion of technical solutions and energy saving potentials, tresulting in a more robust building design. The present paper aims to provide an insight into domestic lighting usages. The main objective is to explore t he key factors (socio-demographic, economic, technical and behavio ral) responsible for the disparities in lighting consump tion between one household and another. For this purpose, an exp eriment is performed concurrently to the proposal of a lightin g usage model. A micro level investigation protocol is elab orated and used to conduct in-depth studies on the usage patte rns of electric lighting. The survey is conducted on a sam ple of 8 French households. The methodology for constructing the experimental protocol, its deployment, as well as t he results obtained and their analysis are presented in this p aper. The need for further qualitative and quantitative studi es to better understand the usage trends of electric lighting is discussed.

A Pedagogical Game based on Lego Bricks for Collaborative Design Practices Analysis

In this paper we present a pedagogical game intended to simulate the collaborative design activities of mechanical products as part of the formation programme for future engineers. This game is based on the adaptation of the Delta Design game developed at M.I.T. The principle of the game is to co-imagine a space shuttle built in Lego® blocks with functions and rules assigned for several students. The software used (MLCad) provides for a shared and distributed use of the game. The core objective is to create a situation that brings the students together in a way that encourages them to experiment with different designs by making compromises, overcoming conflicts, and working within the constraints of the game. The underlying theory of this model is that by encouraging collaboration among each other when addressing the different obstacles and variables encountered, the students will have a better understanding of their own behaviour and the behaviour of other members. Thus, the students will intuitively contemplate the diverse and beneficial methods of collaboration required for practices between trades.

A Stochastic Activity-Based Approach for Forecasting Occupant-Related Energy Consumption in Residential Buildings

Building occupants are considered as a major source of uncertainty in energy modeling nowadays. Yet, industrial energy simulation tools often account for occupant behavior through some predefined scenarios and fixed consumption profiles which yield to unrealistic and inaccurate predictions. In this paper, a stochastic activity-based approach for forecasting occupant-related energy consumption in residential buildings is proposed. First, the model is exposed together with its different variables. Second, a direct application of the model on the domestic activity “washing laundry” is performed. A number of simulations are performed and their results are presented and discussed. Finally, the model is validated by confronting simulation results to real measured data.Copyright

Residential Buildings Use-Phase Memory for Better Consumption Monitoring of Users and Design Improvement

Residents’ usages and behaviour are inadequately known and understood, as well as being highly variable. However, they play a determining role in the variability of both the energy consumption and environmental impact of residential buildings during their use-phase. This paper proposes a use-phase memory model for residential buildings, which stores energy and resource consumption, and usage patterns. Useful information is further extracted by data crossing and visual data representation. Building experts refer to it for two specific use-cases, namely designing a new sustainable building and renovating an existing one. This information helps them to understand energy and resource consumption and, real users’ behaviour and activities. Building’s users obtain different kinds of service in return for their collaboration and contribution. Our model is presently being deployed on a residential building, based on beneficial services for each building’s stakeholder, thus introducing a sustainable relationship between designers, the residential building and its users.

FOR A SUSTAINABLE DIALOGUE: THE GREEN-USE (GU) LEARNING CYCLES CONCEPT

Product design is now driven to the satisfaction of requirements all along the life cycle of the product, with an increased concern in environmental impact. A new concept, the Green-Use (GU) Learning Cycles, is proposed. It is used to determine the way a continuous, adaptive interaction between user and product can be established to improve environmental performance during use. It is structured by two levels of analysis (macro and micro) and a cyclic nature. These levels are the ”Incremental user involvement levels”, and the ”Environmental Impact in Use”. They are modelled around the notion of an evolution in cycles, from the initial state of the system product-user to a final stage which results in optimal use with minimal environmental impact. This work includes experimentation to support the new concept proposed, as well a method to use it.

Best practices assessment in requirements engineering tools integration

Companies can use methodological software tools to perform requirement engineering. Those methodological tools are increasingly developped by external software editors and integrators. The performance of the tools is not enough to ensure efficiency of methodology application.This paper is part of a PhD research programm. This research program focuses on the way of integrating requirement engineering tools into product design department with a provider perspective. To be more precise, this research project emphasizes on modifications occuring during integration phases. In order to evaluate and to improve integration process, key indicators can be proposed. From the first stage of integration to the moment the user is autonomous, key integration factors often change. For example, requirements of the user, user environment, product life cycle, delay for integration, actors, … This paper aims at proposing surveys to identify those changing key factors. Then, first best practices elements are given to counteract the possible negative impact on efficiency of requirement engineering tools integration and thus, on product development. In fact, this paper goes further into the way to analyze the existing system. It notably deals with first elements from industrial survey on IT vendor and their customer perspectives on tools integration. In addition, preliminary survey results on customer dissatisfaction are proposed and analyzed. It also proposes a short case study and further research work in order to assume those first results and to bring to the definition of integration approach for methodological tools in engineering domain.Copyright