On the Influence of Users’ Actions on Thermal Performance of Buildings

The thermal exchanges between the buildings and its surroundings may be easily evaluated from balance equations. However, some parameters in the equations are prone to changesdue to decisions taken by the users at some time, and further decisions and even computations onthermal behaviour may be strongly affected by the users attitudes and actions. This can producewrong computation of energy consumption and savings, and then they have to be avoided. On theother hand, wrong actions of the users or misuses might produce uncomfortable conditions that aredifficult or expensive to handle. One of the ways to avoid wrong actions of the users is throughtraining them, but another reliable way to avoid problems is by means of robust design, whererobust design stands for whole architectural design that difficults the taking of inappropriate decisions by the users, concerning for instance door use, protection of windows, ventilation and related, and some protections on the use of machinery (heating, cooling, air conditioning). In this work, we analyse the sensitivity of the thermal performance results to some actions taken by users in buildings with different building designs. The importance of the control on the conditioning devices, and on the actions that the users can undertake, is emphasized, and the effect on energy consumption and on comfort is also considered.