The quest for energy-efficient buildings necessitates a deeper understanding of how occupants interact with energy-efficient scenarios such as renovations and retrofits, designed to reduce energy consumption. Understanding occupant interaction prior to implementing such scenarios is crucial to achieving building efficiency. Traditional methods, such as survey, field studies, and simulations face challenges in accurately investigating and eliciting occupant interaction to energy-efficient scenarios due to significant limitations of engaging occupants. In response to limitation, this paper explores a capability to engage occupants of a novel integrated method that leverages Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs), creating realistic simulations of building energy-efficient scenarios within controlled environments. It integrates a thermal-controlled environment providing thermal stimuli, allowing for examination of occupant interaction, fostering robust data collection under realistic conditions. This method aims to enhance understanding of the relationship between occupant behavior, building energy-related scenarios, particularly by emphasizing realism and engagement. Case studies simulated building and functions for studying occupant interaction to energy-efficient scenarios, exploring links to thermal perceptions. It investigated occupants’ engagements using post-interviews, in which the results highlight strong potential of the method to elicit truthful occupants’ perception and interaction, and enhance occupant engagements. Overall, this IVE-integrated method paves the way for further exploration of immersive technologies to enhance understanding of occupant-building interaction dynamics, leading to potentially improved interactions and sustainable building practices.