Effect of telecommuting on energy consumption in residential and non-residential sectors

In this paper, the change of energy use by telecommuting (working at home) is simulated for  residential and office buildings by modeling the  differences in the occupants’ behavior. By summing  up these results, the change in annual energy use in  Osaka City caused by the saturation of  telecommuting is evaluated in three dissemination  scenarios for the transformation of office buildings.  The results indicate that telecommuting tends to increase energy consumption in the residential sector  and to decrease it in the non-residential sector, and  that it is possible to increase energy consumption if  the floor area of office buildings is not decreased by  sharing the space among telecommuters. If the floor  area of an office building decreases with the increase  of telecommuters, energy consumption will decrease  by 0.6% of the total energy consumption of the  residential and non-residential sectors in Osaka City  at a 60% saturation level of telecommuting