Optimization of building design has the promise to substantially reduce building energy consumption. Though typically considered in early design, we demonstrate in this work that optimal re-design of building layouts has the potential to reduce energy use throughout the lifetime of a building and as occupant dynamics evolve over time. In this work, I used plug load energy sensing to characterize real occupancy schedules. I found that, within building zones, higher diversity in occupant schedules -- that is, more differences in behavior -- leads to an increase in energy consumption. By optimizing the building layout, we can expect to reduce this diversity metric and save energy. In one case study, I found that the optimized layout can reduce the energy consumption of the lighting system by 5% compared to the existing layout.

This figure shows a toy example of how assigning occupants to different zones can enable energy savings of a building's lighting system. In (a), the occupants are randomly assigned. In (b), they are assigned based on their schedule archetypes (occupants with similar schedules sit together).