Integration of Video Image Processing and BIM-Based Energy Simulation for Analyzing the Impact of Dynamic User Patterns on Building Energy Consumption

There are many research studies focusing on enhancing energy efficiency of buildings since the building sector accounts for almost half of the total energy consumption in several developed counties. Within this sector, space conditioning consumes more than half of the energy used in buildings. Occupants' behavior has a significant impact on energy consumption. Examples of behaviors are activities such as opening windows and setting indoor temperature for air conditioning systems. In this paper, the authors discuss the integration of building information modeling (BIM)-based energy simulation, and video image processing as a technique to determine dynamic user patterns in order to accurately capture the impact of occupant behaviors in a space or room. The results from a case show the relationship of the number of people, with different user patterns in different time intervals in a classroom in Miami, FL, and the annual energy consumption of the classroom. The results also show that the technique applied to this research has great potential.