Semi-automated simulations: Know your schedules

This study tests semi-automated simulation measures such as schedules and occupancy profiles in B I M software packages to establish energy performance predictions for the purposes of providing evidence of compliance. These predictions are tested against an archetypal range of household operation figures that are based on the data collected of approximately 400 households monitored for 11 months each. This study identifies that standardising the simulations by using the archetypal range of dwelling occupation predictions produces a more consistent outcome in energy evaluation across both software packages. However, both of the B I M software packages tested in this study are unable to establish energy performance predictions that align with the real-world measured data. This suggests that in-built semi-automated simulation measures, beyond the optimised schedules and occupancy profiles, investigated in this study, need to be examined in greater detail.