Occupant behaviour is a key factor in the energy consumption and performance of a building. However, it is difficult to model and simulate hence there is often a mismatch between the predicted and actual performance of a new or refurbished buildings and surprising variations in the consumptions of similar and identical buildings. Although environmental conditions affect people significantly, there are also non-environmental factors including how well employers manage people and how well dwelling occupants understand their controls. Rarely are these factors considered in building performance, especially commercial buildings. Poor management can lead to varying degrees of occupant maladaptation. Maladaptation taken here to mean behaviour patterns that are detrimental to the optimal functioning of the building. This paper proposes a novel concept for designers that examines the worst possible energy performance gap (“extreme” scenario testing) where the theoretical occupants do their best to make the building consume as much energy as possible. The novel concept is called “maxmaladaptation”. By considering maxmaladaptation, designers can attempt to reduce it, so reducing the energy gap. This paper briefly reviews the energy gap and social psychology and its contribution to understanding energy consumption with some examples, underlying the concept of maxmaladaptation.

Practical application: Building energy performance gaps often exist because predicted design consumptions are often less than actual consumptions due to the occupants not behaving as designers expect. Using the concept of maxmaladaptation, an extreme scenario of maximum energy use by occupants, designers can design buildings to avoid unexpected energy consumption. Often the influences of occupant behaviour are not considered in detail. Social psychology gives an insight into non-environmental factors that can cause maladaptation, a constituent of maxmaladaptation.

乘员行为是建筑物能耗和性能的关键因素。但是，很难建模和模拟，因此在新建或翻新建筑物的预测性能与实际性能之间经常会出现不匹配，而相似和相同建筑物的消耗量却会出现令人惊讶的变化。尽管环境条件对人的影响很大，但也存在非环境因素，包括雇主对人的管理水平以及居住者对控制的了解程度。很少在建筑物性能中考虑这些因素，特别是在商业建筑物中。管理不善会导致不同程度的乘员适应不良。这里所说的不适应是指对建筑物的最佳功能有害的行为模式。本文为设计人员提出了一个新颖的概念，该概念研究了可能的最差能源性能差距（“极端”情景测试），其中理论上的占用者尽最大努力使建筑物消耗尽可能多的能源。新颖的概念称为“最大适应”。通过考虑最大适应性，设计人员可以尝试减少最大适应性，从而减小能隙。本文以最大适应度的概念为例，简要回顾了能源差距和社会心理及其对理解能源消耗的贡献。设计人员可以尝试减少它，从而缩小能隙。本文以最大适应度的概念为例，简要回顾了能源差距和社会心理及其对理解能源消耗的贡献。设计人员可以尝试减少它，从而缩小能隙。本文以最大适应度的概念为例，简要回顾了能源差距和社会心理及其对理解能源消耗的贡献。

实际应用：建筑能耗通常存在差距，这是因为由于居住者的行为不符合设计人员的预期，因此预计的设计消耗通常小于实际消耗。使用最大适应性的概念（居住者最大能耗的极端情况），设计师可以设计建筑物，以避免意外的能耗。通常，不会详细考虑乘员行为的影响。社会心理学可以洞悉可能导致适应不良的非环境因素，适应不良是最大适应的组成部分。