The performance gap caused by occupant behaviour (OB) is one of the main challenges to the accuracy of building performance simulations (BPS) models. Calibration of BPS models has shown great improvements in tertiary and single residential buildings. Nevertheless, the calibration in collective residential buildings is still uncertain. This study aims to identify the opportunities and barriers to the calibration of collective residential building BPS models for the analysis of heating energy consumption. For this, the research calibrates a real case study of a social rental housing building located in northern Spain. The method involves the adjustment of input data based on OB clusters, developed by monitorization and survey data and the statistical comparison of the results of normative models, calibrated models and real data. The results show an average improvement of 67% in hourly indoor temperature and 16% in hourly heating energy consumption in calibrated models, but still with a considerable performance gap. The main barriers to a higher accuracy are the wide diversity and lack of uniformity of OB patterns, uncertainty of parameters, and use of auxiliary heating systems. However, deeper monitorization and survey campaigns with the use of OB clusters can be a promising opportunity.

Social housing users are generally more vulnerable due to age and socioeconomic conditions and have to deal with specific problems related to vulnerability to poor indoor environment exposure. The current housing model does not respond to the diversity of family structures and their needs, and it is, therefore, essential to integrate residents’ perspectives into the process of improving their quality of life, health and comfort. This study aims to analyse the factors that influence the perceived Indoor Environmental Quality and comfort of public rental housing. It also aims to study occupants’ perceived comfort in relation to the characteristics of the dwellings. To achieve the objective of the study, a multifactorial approach has been applied to a sample of 283 dwellings in 16 buildings of the public rental stock in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain, with data obtained in a survey conducted in the winter. The analysis of the incident variables in the perceived indoor environment supports the idea of the influence of occupants’ perspectives and the subjectivity of their responses in the comfort analyses and provides new insight into the relationship between the physical characteristics of social housing and households’ perceived comfort.

Evidence shows that people have a major impact on building performance. Occupants’ impact is especially important in social housing, where their occupants may present greater vulnerabilities, and their needs are not always considered. This study aims to analyse the socio-demographic influence in social rental housing concerning hygrothermal comfort and energy consumption in a case study located in Vitoria, Spain during the first 4-month period of 2020 and 2021 (during and after COVID-19 lockdown). An innovative data management system is included, where the users and administration can see in real-time the temperature and consumption in the dwellings. A 2-phase method has been applied; phase 1 is associated with outdoor climate conditions, building properties and social profile. Phase 2 determined the results in energy consumption, indoor hygrothermal comfort and occupant energy-use pattern. The results show that the comfort levels and energy consumption vary according to the analysed social profiles, as well as the heating activation periods and domestic hot water system usage. In conclusion, socio-demographic characteristics of social housing households influence the hygrothermal comfort of their dwellings, occupants’ behaviour and heating and domestic hot water energy consumption.

The energy poverty derived from socio-economic imbalances affects mostly households with fewer economic resources, being social housing complexes one of the most vulnerable sectors. The insufficient access to energy and the incapability to maintain dwellings at an adequate temperature can have negative impact on people’s health due to the prolonged exposure to poor hygrothermal conditions. Therefore, the prioritization of building retrofitting actions must be carried out regarding the actual state of the housing and the family economy. This paper proposes the definition of a prioritization map that gave a general knowledge of the energy vulnerability situation of the existing building stock. To this end, the dwelling’s energy performance is analysed, focusing on the correlation among its characteristics and the energy vulnerability of its inhabitants. In this way, dwellings with high energy poverty potential are identified in order to develop different energy retrofitting strategies. By applying this method to 14 case studies of social housing in Bilbao, Spain, it was obtained a prioritization map with six levels of vulnerability that can serve as a tool for public entities to design their future strategies. It has been proven that building compactness and year of construction are important factors with a great impact on the heating demand and final consumption in dwellings. Acknowledging the vulnerability context of the building stock eases the decision-making process and the definition of intervention guidelines, prioritizing those in a situation of greater vulnerability.

The influence of people on building performance is becoming increasingly significant. Including users’ perspective in decision-making and design processes could help to improve occupants’ well-being and the feasibility of interventions by providing more accurate information about heating preferences for energy models. Furthermore, understanding residents’ level of thermal satisfaction could enable more appropriate measures to be taken to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. This study aims to define an indicator that measures the level of thermal satisfaction of social housing occupants so that it can be contrasted with other methods of analysis of perceived comfort and can be replicated in different building contexts. A way to analyse occupants’ thermal satisfaction is proposed in a quantitative way, measured as the difference of the desired temperature and the perceived indoor temperature. The index was applied to a sample of 283 social housing dwellings in the Basque Country, Spain, with data obtained via surveys that include questions on thermal comfort in winter and households’ characteristics. Furthermore, the indicator was compared to other variables, such as household income and energy expenses, to observe behavioural trends and possible cases of energy vulnerability. The obtained variable provides occupants’ opinion and perception to ensure the suitability of the solutions for improving the energy efficiency of the building and the thermal comfort. It is also possible to apply it to different building typologies and compare the results with other models of perceived thermal comfort.