The interaction between humans and buildings for energy efficiency: A critical review

•Highly complex relationship between building energy use and occupants.•Existent research has had only limited impact on actual energy use of built environment.•Previous work biased towards quantitative research from developed countries.•Most studies limited to single or small groups of buildings and short time intervals.•Data gathering does not follow well-established protocols or standards. Buildings consume energy for different purposes. One core function is to provide healthy and comfortable living conditions for the humans that inhabit these buildings. The associated energy use is significant: taken together, buildings are responsible for roughly 40% of the world’s total annual energy consumption. This large percentage makes the built environment an important target for researchers, policy makers, innovators and others who aim to decrease energy consumption and the associated emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHG). Unfortunately, the significant body of research on energy efficient buildings conducted since the 1970s has had only a limited impact on the overall energy use of the sector, and this remains a serious concern. The energy use of buildings shows a strong correlation with the activities of the building occupants. A key factor that makes it hard to curb building energy use is a lack of understanding of building occupant behaviour. This paper reviews research on building occupant behaviour in two stages. The first stage reviews important issues, milestones, methodologies used, building types analysed and progress achieved related to the topic, as reported in the most frequently cited papers. The second stage focuses on recent work in the area and investigates ‘state of the art’ developments in terms of questions asked and solutions proposed. The aim is to identify problems and knowledge gaps in the field for future projection. Recent research on the topic is analysed, taking account of methodologies, building types, locations, keywords, data sampling and survey size. Based on a critical analysis of the literature, the following outcomes can be reported: research on building occupant behaviour relies strongly on quantitative methods, but studies are mostly located in the northern hemisphere and in developed and high-income countries. The dominant research topics associated with occupant behaviour are energy demand and thermal comfort, followed by retrofit and renovation. Most research focuses on technical aspects rather than socio-economic issues.