Integration of occupants’ behavior in design and operation of thermal solar systems in residential buildings located in Southern Italy

The total energy consumption of buildings is the result of an interaction between architecture, engineering, installations and users. In addition to technological approaches and innovations, an important impact on the performance of the "building system" is derived from the users’ interference with technical systems. In fact, existing and recent studies have shown the strong influence of occupants on the energy performance of buildings; their presence and their interactions with the internal environment can interfere and largely determine the energy consumption on different time scales (season, week, day, hour, minute). One can see how energy consumption depends more on occupant choices than on systems efficiency. For this reason, design methodologies should include the integrated action of the occupant with the systems that produce, accumulate and consume energy. On the other hand, energy systems can be made more efficient through the integration of renewable energy sources available in the specific climatic and economic context. Therefore, the need arises to solve the problems connected to the intermittent availability of renewable energy through the integration of reliable storage systems. The proposal of the study is to investigate the influence of different occupancy profiles in design and operation of thermal solar systems for residential buildings located in Mediterranean area. Occupancy and energy use profiles are determined by using both questionnaire survey and monitoring campaign conducted in typical dwellings. Questions are fitted for collecting information about physical, socio-demographic and behavioral variables. Physical parameters allow to define the climatic context, the construction typology, the heating/cooling/DHW systems, equipment, and energy consumptions. Occupant’s behavior is detected by means of detailed schedules in which people indicate, for every hour of the day, the presence in each room of the house. Similar schedules are applied to collect the operation of heating, cooling, lighting, DHW, and electrical devices. Furthermore, windows opening and curtains usage are detected both for winter and summer. For the specific study, profiles for DHW consumption are determined on hourly base and used in energy simulation with the aim of identifying appropriate storage configurations in relation to the use of conventional or local integrative source (such as wood) and users’ behavior. Furthermore, technological choices are supported by economic analysis. The investigation provides analyses and prediction of energy performance of solar collectors and water storage based on the integrated occupant-technological system approach.