Domestic energy retrofit has significant potential in reducing carbon emission and energy demand. However, the actual energy saving from retrofit projects often falls short of expectations. One of the main reasons for this is occupant behaviour being addressed inadequately in energy models. Large variations in occupant behaviour may not have been considered (or are averaged) when making predictions of retrofit savings, and occupants may exploit energy efficiency to improve their comfort by increasing the use of heating and appliances. Unfortunately, Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), as one of the main platforms to provide retrofit advice in the UK, use the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) with standard behavioural input to generate retrofit recommendations.

This research has developed a modelling approach incorporating household archetypes to improve the reliability of retrofit advice and offer more targeted retrofit strategies that consider occupants’ behavioural variations. It developed five household archetypes using statistical analyses of data obtained from a questionnaire survey. It showed that retrofit effectiveness vary significantly, distinguished by the use of household archetypes. It also illustrated that using household archetypes can yield higher savings compared with the conventional method in EPCs at urban level. The results suggested that energy retrofits on an urban scale using such tailored approach with household archetypes could save a further 20% of the annual energy costs and reduces the payback by typically 2 years. This research demonstrates that using a modelling approach with household archetypes for energy retrofit design can significantly improve overall saving potential while maintaining occupant comfort.

国内能源改造在减少碳排放和能源需求方面具有巨大潜力。但是，改造项目实际节省的能源往往达不到预期。造成这种情况的主要原因之一是在能源模型中未充分解决乘员行为。进行翻新节省的预测时，可能不会考虑（或取平均）乘员行为的大变化，并且乘员可利用能源效率来增加加热器和设备的使用，从而提高舒适度。不幸的是，作为英国提供改装建议的主要平台之一，能源绩效证书（EPC）使用带有标准行为输入的标准评估程序（SAP）来生成改装建议。

这项研究开发了一种结合家庭原型的建模方法，以提高改装建议的可靠性，并提供考虑到乘客行为差异的更有针对性的改装策略。它使用对问卷调查获得的数据进行统计分析，发展出五种家庭原型。结果表明，改造效果差异很大，以使用家庭原型为特征。它还说明，与传统方法相比，使用家用原型可以在城市一级的EPC中节省更多费用。结果表明，使用这种具有家庭原型的量身定制的方法在城市范围内进行能源改造，可以进一步节省20％的年度能源成本，并通常将投资回收期减少2年。