Adaptive occupancy scheduling: Exploiting microclimate variations in buildings

Using natural ventilation instead of mechanical building systems to regulate indoor climate can reduce energy consumption while increasing human well-being. The feasibility of natural ventilation depends on outdoor climate conditions as well as the physical and architectural properties of a building. Based on the observation that institutional buildings are rarely occupied to full capacity, this paper proposes a building operation paradigm aimed at increasing the feasibility of natural ventilation. We introduce the concept of adaptive occupancy scheduling, a prescriptive system that allocates occupants in real time to populate only the most environmentally suitable spaces at all times. We exemplify this paradigm in a school design study, in which a fixed room schedule is replaced by a sensor network that assigns classes to classrooms with appropriate microclimatic conditions on-the-go. Our initial results indicate that a higher local architectural diversity generally increases comfort in free-running mode.