Occupants' operation of lighting and shading systems in office buildings

In most buildings, people operate control devices such as windows, shades, luminaires, radiators and fans to bring about desirable indoor environmental conditions. These control actions have a significant impact on buildings' performance and sustainability (energy use, indoor climate). A better understanding of the logic and patterns of such control-oriented user behaviour can not only facilitate better predictions of buildings' performance, but also support the effective operation of buildings' service systems. This paper describes an extensive empirical study of control-oriented user behaviour (as related to systems for lighting and shading) in a number of office buildings in Austria. The results specifically shed light on the relationships between control actions and environmental conditions inside and outside buildings.