A Field Survey of Occupancy and Air-Conditioner Use Patterns in Open Plan Offices

This paper reports the survey results from a field monitoring study of office occupancy and air-conditioner use pattern of an office building in Seoul, Korea, from 20 July to 29 September 2009. The survey has an aim to reveal the relationship between the indoor environment conditions and occupancy; and the use patterns of air-conditioners and energy consumption in offices. The results showed that the average occupied time of the investigated offices was 15.48 h per day for normal weekdays, which was longer than expected occupancy schedules assumed for offices for the design prediction of building energy consumption. This study also presents the hourly profiles of air-conditioner use and evaluates the effect of longer occupancy period on energy consumption for air cooling in open-plan offices in Korea. The findings of this study could contribute to inform building energy simulation based on realistic office occupancy profile provided by the survey, which would therefore inform better operation of air-conditioners and more efficient use of energy in building management.