Monitoring energy consumption in single-family houses

A technical and statistical solution to the problem of obtaining timely and reliable estimates of end-use energy consumption in single-family houses is presented. This approach is called 'The Energy Barometer' to allude to its possibility to follow the 'pressure' on the energy market. Recently developed Internet-based communication techniques are used to monitor building energy end-use at short time-intervals. We describe how this new technology is combined with statistical methods based on Energy Signature models into a system. Measured energy use from a random sample of houses is standardized for each investigated house by (i) statistically regressing energy data against climate data and (ii) using climate data for a 'normal' year together with the obtained regression equation to determine average annual energy use. The results are generalized to apply for the studied building stock by using a weighting procedure. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.