Investigation the Impact of Occupant’s Thermal Behavior on Energy Consumption in Residential Buildings of Rasht

Subject Areas : Life Space Journal

Narges Rezazadeh Pileh Dar Boni ¹ , Shahin Heidari ² , Hossein soltanzadeh ³

1 - Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Architecture, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran
2 - Professor, Department of Architecture, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
3 - Professor, Department of Architecture, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

Received: 2024-09-27 Accepted : 2025-01-11 Published : 2025-03-18

Keywords: Thermal Behavior of Occupants , Energy Saving , Residential Buildings of Rasht , Energy-Saving Behaviors , Building Energy Label,

Abstract :

According to Iran's last energy balance sheet, the construction sector is one of Iran's largest thermal energy converters. Final energy consumption per capita in the domestic sector of Iran is high. The considerable point is the high share of energy saving in the construction sector, and energy decline strategies must be adopted severely or even compulsorily. Attempt to reduce energy consumption has encouraged researchers to do more studies and find alternative solutions for fossil fuel use. Regarding the energy impacts on various fields and the necessity for a comprehensive attitude towards this critical topic, it is essential to keep the energy situation in the country. In this case, occupants' behavior is one of the main factors affecting energy saving and design of buildings. Thus, it is necessary to have enough knowledge about the behavior of individuals and their interaction with the building systems regarding thermal comfort and energy saving. A deeper perception of a building’s thermal behavior requires understanding the behavior of building users because occupants’ behavior has direct and indirect effects on the consumption rate of energy resources in the buildings. The research method is applied type, through in-situ data and information data collection has been done based on field surveys, observations, interviews, questionnaires and measurements of climatic parameters. IBM SPSS Statistics 25 was used to analyze the data. This important case is the effective factor for the effect of the direction of the relationship between predicted energy consumption rate and actual energy consumption rate in the buildings. Regarding the importance of occupant behavior and its relationship with energy resource consumption in the built environments, this study examines the impact of the behavior of occupants living in the residential buildings on energy saving in the residential buildigs (villa and apartment) of Rasht city based on the empirical evidence from field reviews by consideration of different thermal feelings of individuals when exposed to environmental conditions of indoor space of the building. The main question of this study is as follows: “What corrective behaviors must be done by the occupants of residential buildings to reduce energy consumption during warm and cold seasons?”. This study aims to investigate the impact of the thermal behaviors of occupants living in the villa and apartment residential buildings located in Rasht on energy saving during cold and warm seasons of the year. This is applied research through in-situ data and information collection. The research nature is quantitative because of extracting certain measurable criteria, and qualitative reviews and surveys have been also done. Data collection has been done based on field surveys, observations, interviews, and questionnaires distributed among occupants of residential buildings in Rasht during winter and summer 2021. Also, electricity and gas energy consumption of both types of buildings was reviewed. The results of occupants’ behaviors during the two seasons indicated that they adopt different behavioral patterns to acquire thermal comfort, some of which leads to increased consumption of energy carriers in residential buildings. Therefore, behavioral and architectural factors both prevented assigning no energy labels to 80.43% of apartments and 91.89% of villas. Hence, following actions are recommended: energy saving behaviors matched with two seasons with the necessity of making occupants aware and create culture of package use preference, use of underfloor heating systems and smart control of engine room instead of heaters and gas fireplace, necessary use of heating equipment with smart thermostat, prevent heating unnecessary spaces and turn on fewer lights for cold and warm periods in order, prefer to use ceiling and standing fans simultaneously with opening windows to create natural air ventilation and use split inverter air conditioners instead of conventional air conditioners, attention to adjust the coolers on comfort temperature (24^°C) and adjust the cooler’ fans degree on higher rate, consider energy label A and electricity consumption rate of cooler when purchasing it, use of double-glazed or multi-glazed windows with UPVC frame and low-emissivity glass with basic installation, more attention to climate-compatible design and standard direction in the buildings to have proper southern and northern lights, underlying change in their attitudes and behaviors (breaking habits and priorities) and insisting on its continuous implementation in long term through direct or indirect teaching to realize behavioral sustainability in energy saving.