Learnings from User Digital Trail Post-Occupancy Evaluation before COVID-19 for Future Workplace Analysis and Design

Energy efficiency in residential buildings amid COVID-19: A holistic comparative analysis between old and new normal occupancies

Stringent lockdowns have been one of the defining features of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns have brought about drastic changes in living styles, including increased residential occupancy and telework practices predicted to last long. The variation in occupancy pattern and energy use needs to be assessed at the household level. Consequently, the new occupancy times will impact the performance of energy efficiency measures. To address these gaps, this work uses a real case study, a two-story residential building in the Okanagan Valley (British Columbia, Canada). Further, steady-state building energy simulations are performed on the HOT2000 tool to evaluate the resiliency of energy efficiency measures under a full lockdown. Three-year monitored energy data is analyzed to study the implications of COVID-19 lockdowns on HVAC and non-HVAC loads at a monthly temporal scale. The results show a marked change in energy use patterns and a higher increase in May 2020 compared to the previous two years. Calibrated energy models built on HOT2000 are then used to study the impacts of pre-COVID-19 (old normal occupancy) and post-COVID-19 (new normal occupancy) on energy upgrades performance. The simulations show that under higher occupancy times, the annual electricity use increased by 16.4%, while natural gas use decreased by 7.6%. The results indicate that overall residential buildings following pre-COVID-19 occupancy schedules had higher energy-saving potential than those with new normal occupancy. In addition, the variation in occupancy and stakeholder preferences directly impact the ranking of energy efficiency measures. Furthermore, this study identifies energy efficiency measures that provide flexibility for the decision-makers by identifying low-cost options feasible under a range of occupancy schedules.

Research on a Commercial Building Space Traffic Flow Design Based on Post-Occupancy Evaluation

The aim of traffic flow design in commercial building space planning is to create a comfortable, easily accessible, and identifiable spatial structure in a complex and changeable business environment. However, modern commercial building spaces often appear to be inconsistent with the usage requirements after they are put into use. To understand the real experience evaluation of users, this study selects the commercial project “Guangzhou Nanpu Times Commercial Building Space” as its subject. Based on post-occupancy evaluation (POE), this study uses the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to construct an evaluation index system of commercial building space traffic flow. The weights and satisfaction scores of the indexes are calculated through expert interviews and questionnaires to analyze the evaluation and reasons for the commercial building space traffic flow design after using the facilities. We thereby obtain the design points of commercial building space traffic flow to provide a scientific, reasonable, and practical basis for the subsequent design of the same type of traffic flow to drive the prosperity and development of commerce.