Importance of occupancy information for building climate control

► Investigation of occupancy information for energy efficient building climate control. ► Simulation study with different buildings, HVAC systems, seasons, and occupancy patterns. ► Adjusting lighting and ventilation to instantaneous measurements has large energy savings potential. ► Additional occupancy predictions do not provide significant energy savings potential. This paper investigates the potential of using occupancy information to realize a more energy efficient building climate control. The study focuses on Swiss office buildings equipped with Integrated Room Automation (IRA), i.e. the integrated control of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC) as well as lighting and blind positioning of a building zone or room. To evaluate the energy savings potential, different types of occupancy information are used in a Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework, which is well-suited for this study due to its ability to readily include occupancy information in the control. An MPC controller, which controls the building based on a standard fixed occupancy schedule, is used as a benchmark. The energy use of this benchmark is compared with three other control strategies: first, the same MPC controller which uses the same schedule for control as the benchmark, but turns off the lighting in case of (an instantaneous measurement of) vacancy; second, the same MPC controller which uses the same schedule as the benchmark for control, but turns off lighting and ventilation in case of (an instantaneous measurement of) vacancy; and third, the same MPC controller as the benchmark but using a perfect prediction about the upcoming occupancy. This comparison is carried out for different buildings, HVAC systems, seasons and occupancy patterns in order to determine their influence on the energy savings potential.