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Re: GBlist: definition of "Heating Season"
Jorg,
It sounds like what you want to do is normalize the consumption that you
have measured so that you can compare it to other years and other places.
The description that Mark has provided is very good and applies to
calculating the potential for savings. Not setting the balance point low
causes more errors in savings estimates than anything else I know.
For normalization, you can still use a standard 65 DF base temperature.
Divide the actual consumption by the actual heating degree days then
multiply by the 30 year average heating degree days or the long term
average heating degree days of the location you want to make the comparison
to.
The best way to do this kind of normalization is to use a product called
PRISM, available from Princteton Univerity's Center on the Environment (or
some name close to that). PRISM does a multiple linear regression to
determine the best fit of consumption to weather, producing a kwh/DF value.
PRISM is the standard for comparing energy consumption. PRISM has a
heating only model, a cooling only model and a heating/cooling model.
Greg Thomas
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