Sustainability, Vol. 11, Pages 5711: Uncertainty of Energy and Economic Performance of Manual Solar Shades in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Regions of China (Sustainability)

Occupant behavior is recognized as a major source of discrepancy between simulated and actual energy consumption. This study investigates the uncertainty of energy and economic performance of manual solar shades for the south facade. A developed stochastic model for manual solar shades based on a discrete-time Markov chain method was constructed in Building Controls Virtual Test Bed (BCVTB) for co-simulation with EnergyPlus. The stochastic shade model was compared with deterministic models concerning energy savings potential and life cycle economic performance at different building scales (i.e., from a single room to a whole building). The results show that annual energy uncertainty, due to occupant behavior, on manual shades can be neglected at the building level, whereas for sizing heating equipment, energy uncertainty should be considered. The payback period for manual shades is about 10 years and, in general, a larger building has a higher economic performance. Comparative analysis shows that there is a relatively big performance overestimation or underestimation by commonly used deterministic models in building simulation tools, and thus may lead to a biased economic analysis or even an inappropriate design decision when comparing different energy-saving measures.