Investigation of Using Fuzzy Logic to Model Occupant Satisfaction and Behavior in a Building

Occupant satisfaction with indoor environmental conditions are in close relation to energy consumption in buildings. Despite the increasing efforts to maintain thermal comfort conditions in buildings with control strategies, occupants are not usually satisfied, and, thus, change their behavior which generally interfere with building operation systems. Therefore, modeling and characterizing occupant satisfaction and behavior are important considerations in the building energy use. However, occupant satisfaction and behavior as well as indoor environmental conditions have serious amount of uncertainty, and, thus, it is difficult to simulate them via traditional techniques. In this study, a total of 8 tests were conducted to monitor indoor environmental conditions in an educational building. A questionnaire was distributed during the monitoring period in order to understand the satisfaction level of occupants as well as their behavior preference. The results are utilized to model occupant behavior where fuzzy logic is preferred to tackle the uncertainty in the model parameters. Results denote that there is a significant potential of utilizing fuzzy logic to model occupant behavior under uncertain conditions similar to the real life.