Post-occupancy evaluation on the Venny: an investigation into the impacts of occupant behaviour in relation to the performance of a small passively cooled building in Melbourne through post-occupancy evaluation

Buildings hardly perform as they were designed to; even the most efficiently designed building cannot guarantee its performance. This research paper investigates the impact of occupant behaviour in relation to the performance of a small, passively cooled building in Melbourne through the use of a Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE). This paper is the second phase of a research project on the Venny, with the first phase of the research consisting of the building simulation on the Venny. The simulation showed promising results of the Venny's performance with regard to the Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) of the occupants and energy efficiency. This research, aims to answer the following three key questions: 1. What is the actual performance of the Venny, and how accurate is the thermal and energy modelling at predicting its actual performance? 2. What are the causes and effects of the difference, and how much influence does occupant behaviour have on the results? 3. What have we learnt from the POE of the Venny? This paper is aiming to highlight the importance of the POE and to promote it as a mandatory tool for all building projects in Melbourne, in order to increase sustainability and decrease the impact of buildings on climate change.