Learning of occupancy patterns in education facilities based on mediated data of building technologies

Increasing energy consumption of buildings is a growing public concern on an international level. For example, almost three quarter of the electricity demand of the USA is created in buildings and further countries show a similar tendency. Recent research papers hint that energy consumption of buildings is influenced by different contributing factors, such as buildings technology, occupancy patterns or interactions. Particularly, educational buildings imply a high energy demand and are as such not comparable to other non-residential buildings, for example offices, due to different building functionalities and usage attitudes. Adjusting the operation schedule of building services (like HVAC) in accordance of occupancy patterns provides a considerable energy saving rate. Therefore, there is a need for a precise and continual framework of occupancy assessment and prediction for classrooms in educational buildings in order to forecast the operation schedule of building services....