Abstract
Sustainable management of the built environment requires good understanding of occupancy patterns of existing buildings. For municipalities, cabins provide important income through taxes and local trade, but they also create challenges: pressure on nature, seasonal jobs and unpredictable strain on municipal services. In order to plan better –both when demand is high and when it is low– more precise knowledge about the usage pattern of cabins is needed. This study showcases a method based on hourly electricity use data to estimate building occupancy applied to 154 Norwegian cabins in three counties. On average, cabins are vacant 287 to 316 days per year, which is consistent with previous survey-based studies. The occupancy of cabins is also low during the weekend days, indicating a large potential for space sharing.