Triggers Behind Human-building Interactions From A User Perspective: Results And Effectiveness Of Capturing Motivations In Real-time

Although there have been significant advancements in the field of energy-related behavioural research in buildings, gaining a more comprehensive and “multi-dimensional” understanding of drivers behind human-building interactions is still needed to better incorporate the user perspective in building operation and design practice. Increasing effort is being put on studying how the combined effect of IEQ (Indoor Environmental Quality) factors may affect user perception and behaviour in occupied buildings. Oftentimes, the motivations behind actions are derived solely from physical measurements of the environment, which might not always reflect the real triggers behind occupants’ actions. On the other hand, requesting feedback directly from occupants might give valuable insights on the perceived triggers for actions, but might also increase the so-called Hawthorne effect, according to which the occupant’s knowledge of being studied affects their natural behaviour. This paper provides early insights from a field study that precisely addresses these questions and relies on a newly developed mobile application named “OBdrive”. The aim of the study is to capture an extensive set of both subjective and objective multi-domain variables that are likely to drive building occupants’ actions on environmental controls.