Energies 2015,8 11014 5.1.2.Simulating Occupant Energy-Consuming Behaviors In simulation research,it is necessary to accept certain assumptions,and these assumptions greatly influence the results.In fact,the accuracy of a simulation technique significantly depends on the adequacy of its assumptions.However,the validation of a simulation technique mainly focuses on technical validation.Future simulation research is recommended to test and verify the assumptions used to develop the models. In order to develop the practical aspect of occupancy-related models,future research should indicate how the developed models can be integrated into current energy simulation software or can be developed as new software.Such moves would be a step toward the practical application of models that shape the future of energy software in built environments.For this reason,future research is recommended to monitor and collect data from a large number of commercial buildings to better validate any proposed models and their corresponding software.Testing and validating the scalability of future models for different building types,different occupant social networks,and within multiple buildings are also recommended. Although there are several studies in the literature that consider occupants'social networks, they simply represent the first step necessary for understanding how various social networks affect energy-use in commercial buildings.More comprehensive studies are still needed.In [123],it was shown that larger network degrees can play a positive role in inspiring occupants to use less electricity. However,the results of [12]indicate non-significant differences in energy savings between moderate and high levels of connection among sub-networks.Therefore a moderate level of connection might be enough to maximize energy savings.Further investigation is needed to determine at what network degree the ideal energy saving can be achieved.Furthermore,mediocre and poor relative networks should be studied in order to completely understand the influence of all network types on occupants'energy use. Chen et al.[161]proposed a block configuration model as a novel agent-based simulation model in order to emulate occupant peer networks and their impact on building energy consumption.Compared with other models,their proposed model can generate a more accurate random network,and allow for a controlled network size and connectivity for occupants'energy use simulation.However,they just tested and validated their model for residential buildings.Future research is thus recommended to verify such models in commercial buildings 5.1.3.Improving Occupant Energy-Consuming Behaviors Different intervention techniques must be individually examined according to whether they are effective,comprehensible,inexpensive,and easy to implement on large-scale groups of occupants in commercial buildings.Furthermore,an intervention technique must be suitable to its target group. In order to find a suitable intervention technique and to adjust it for its targeted group,pre-surveys should be employed to find the energy-related characteristics of occupants in a studied group.Ignoring this step might lead to getting worse energy-consumption behaviors.In [162-164],the results indicate that the occupants had a limited understanding of the goal of the feedback studies and that some occupants had a hard time understanding the used representative units.In such cases,a pre-survey could help identify the general knowledge of the targeted occupants for the feedback study and could help reveal which representative units would work better for them.Therefore,conducting a pre-survey is criticallyEnergies 2015, 8 11014 5.1.2. Simulating Occupant Energy-Consuming Behaviors In simulation research, it is necessary to accept certain assumptions, and these assumptions greatly influence the results. In fact, the accuracy of a simulation technique significantly depends on the adequacy of its assumptions. However, the validation of a simulation technique mainly focuses on technical validation. Future simulation research is recommended to test and verify the assumptions used to develop the models. In order to develop the practical aspect of occupancy-related models, future research should indicate how the developed models can be integrated into current energy simulation software or can be developed as new software. Such moves would be a step toward the practical application of models that shape the future of energy software in built environments. For this reason, future research is recommended to monitor and collect data from a large number of commercial buildings to better validate any proposed models and their corresponding software. Testing and validating the scalability of future models for different building types, different occupant social networks, and within multiple buildings are also recommended. Although there are several studies in the literature that consider occupants’ social networks, they simply represent the first step necessary for understanding how various social networks affect energy-use in commercial buildings. More comprehensive studies are still needed. In [123], it was shown that larger network degrees can play a positive role in inspiring occupants to use less electricity. However, the results of [12] indicate non-significant differences in energy savings between moderate and high levels of connection among sub-networks. Therefore a moderate level of connection might be enough to maximize energy savings. Further investigation is needed to determine at what network degree the ideal energy saving can be achieved. Furthermore, mediocre and poor relative networks should be studied in order to completely understand the influence of all network types on occupants’ energy use. Chen et al. [161] proposed a block configuration model as a novel agent-based simulation model in order to emulate occupant peer networks and their impact on building energy consumption. Compared with other models, their proposed model can generate a more accurate random network, and allow for a controlled network size and connectivity for occupants’ energy use simulation. However, they just tested and validated their model for residential buildings. Future research is thus recommended to verify such models in commercial buildings. 5.1.3. Improving Occupant Energy-Consuming Behaviors Different intervention techniques must be individually examined according to whether they are effective, comprehensible, inexpensive, and easy to implement on large-scale groups of occupants in commercial buildings. Furthermore, an intervention technique must be suitable to its target group. In order to find a suitable intervention technique and to adjust it for its targeted group, pre-surveys should be employed to find the energy-related characteristics of occupants in a studied group. Ignoring this step might lead to getting worse energy-consumption behaviors. In [162–164], the results indicate that the occupants had a limited understanding of the goal of the feedback studies and that some occupants had a hard time understanding the used representative units. In such cases, a pre-survey could help identify the general knowledge of the targeted occupants for the feedback study and could help reveal which representative units would work better for them. Therefore, conducting a pre-survey is critically