Understanding Energy Contexts: An Assessment of Emerging Methods for the Thermo-Behavioural Characterization of Residential Households
| dc.contributor.author | Stephen, Gordon | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2016-04-26T17:20:43Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2016-04-26T17:20:43Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016-04-26 | |
| dc.date.submitted | 2016 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Unlocking the full potential of residential-sector energy efficiency gains will require the efforts of external agents (whether in the public, private, or not-for profit sectors) engaging with individual homeowners in order to encourage the adoption of energy-saving measures. To achieve this result efficiently and effectively, such agents require an easily-obtained understanding of the “energy context" governing a household's energy use and efficiency investment decisions: factors from the number, characteristics, attitudes, and values of occupants to the physical state of a dwelling to broader geographic, financial and legal considerations. Continuously-emerging sources of contextual and household-specific data have the potential, if integrated appropriately, to provide this understanding - but to what extent can this be achieved with current methodological tools, and can the state-of-the-art be improved? This research has attempted to address this question, with an emphasis on the physical characteristics of homes and the behavioural patterns of their occupants. A review of existing characterization techniques in the literature yielded a set of methodological best practises and theoretical shortfalls, which were integrated with physical first principles and empirically-observed statistical trends to develop new modelling approaches to make use of hourly whole-house electricity consumption data, aiming to improve upon the state-of-the-art. A subset of these models (chosen for their speed and stability of parameter estimation) were compared to existing techniques: while one of the novel approaches yielded improved behavioural disaggregation performance and a simpler formulation compared to existing alternatives, there would seem to remain considerable opportunity for continued improvement, with results suggesting several potentially-promising areas for continued research. | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10012/10400 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.pending | false | |
| dc.publisher | University of Waterloo | en |
| dc.subject | energy efficiency | en |
| dc.subject | sustainable energy | en |
| dc.subject | smart meter analytics | en |
| dc.subject | energy conservation | en |
| dc.subject | demand management | en |
| dc.subject.lcsh | dwellings | en |
| dc.subject.lcsh | energy conservation | en |
| dc.subject.lcsh | energy consumption | en |
| dc.subject.lcsh | energy auditing | en |
| dc.subject.lcsh | energy policy | en |
| dc.subject.lcsh | electric power consumption | en |
| dc.subject.lcsh | electric power | en |
| dc.subject.lcsh | renewable energy sources | en |
| dc.subject.lcsh | electric meters | en |
| dc.title | Understanding Energy Contexts: An Assessment of Emerging Methods for the Thermo-Behavioural Characterization of Residential Households | en |
| dc.type | Master Thesis | en |
| uws-etd.degree | Master of Environmental Studies | en |
| uws-etd.degree.department | School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability | en |
| uws-etd.degree.discipline | Accounting | en |
| uws-etd.degree.grantor | University of Waterloo | en |
| uws.contributor.advisor | Rowlands, Ian H. | |
| uws.contributor.affiliation1 | Faculty of Environment | en |
| uws.peerReviewStatus | Unreviewed | en |
| uws.published.city | Waterloo | en |
| uws.published.country | Canada | en |
| uws.published.province | Ontario | en |
| uws.scholarLevel | Graduate | en |
| uws.typeOfResource | Text | en |