Influence of Occupant Behaviour on the State of Charge of a Storage Battery in a nearly-Zero Energy Building

Abstract

The development of nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB) is a goal being set for many countries for the next years. In order to achieve that goal, on-site energy generation is needed, and the use of photovoltaic and storage systems is a possible strategy. Hence, the objective of this work is to evaluate the impact that occupant behaviour has on the batteries energy storage systems (BESS) of an nZEB. This study considers as a case study an nZEB with lightweight construction, located in the university campus, and used by different occupants. The case study has 12 PVs located on the root and a second-life BESS from an electrical vehicle (EV). The monitoring system consists of interior T, RH, CO2 and energy sensors and an exterior on-site meteorological station. The research started with a state of the art review of the support policies for the on-site photovoltaic generation and energy storage. Different storage charge profiles were obtained as different occupant behaviours were applied to the test building. In total, it were considered three occupant profiles and a base scenario was the unoccupied. The occupant behaviour showed to be determinant in the state of charge of the BESS independently from the impacts in the indoor temperature. The need to know the profile of the occupants before the design of the buildings was enhanced.