A methodology to estimate space heating and domestic hot water energy demand profile in residential buildings from low-resolution heat meter data

• Published in: Energy (Oxford) 2023-01, Vol.263, p.125705, Article 125705
• Main Authors: Leiria, Daniel, Johra, Hicham, Marszal-Pomianowska, Anna, Pomianowski, Michal Zbigniew
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: algorithms; Building energy usage; data collection; Data disaggregation; Denmark; District heating; energy; heat; Load profiles; regression analysis; Smart energy meter; Time series analysis
• ISSN: 0360-5442
• DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.125705

This article presents a new methodology to disaggregate the energy demand for space heating (SH) and domestic hot water (DHW) production from single hourly smart heat meters installed in Denmark. The new approach is idealized to be easily applied to several building typologies without the necessity of in-depth knowledge regarding the dwellings and their occupants. This paper introduces, tests, and compares several algorithms to separate and estimate the SH and DHW demand. To validate the presented methodology, a dataset of 28 Danish apartments with detailed energy monitoring (separated SH and DHW usage) is used. The comparison shows that the best method to identify energy demand data points corresponding to DHW production events is the so-called “maximum peaks” approach. Furthermore, the best algorithm to estimate the SH and DHW separately is a combination of two methods: the Kalman filter and the Support Vector Regression (SVR). This new methodology outperforms the current Danish compliances typically used to estimate the annual DHW usage in residential buildings. [Display omitted] •The current smart heat meters installed in Denmark only measure total heat usage.•The total heat usage comprises space heating (SH) and domestic hot water (DHW).•The novel method estimates SH and DHW usage from total heat and local weather data.•A labeled dataset of 28 Danish apartments is used to validate the method.•The estimation method outperforms the current Danish DHW compliance calculation.