Electric Heat Identification Tool (CLOSED)

Update: July 2023

The project team has completed creation of the tool and presented the analysis methodology and data validation process to the client. The tool was created in Excel to offer a lower barrier of entry for most users. The tool compares electricity use on a typical winter day to electricity use on the coldest winter day and also allows users to look up and import relevant weather data from a NOAA API in the spreadsheet by zip code. The tool can be used for tailored marketing by conservation programs to target customers who would be ideal for more efficient equipment retrofits, such as heat pumps and smart thermostats.

Overview

For this project, CEE will create a spreadsheet tool that can be used to identify utility customers that use electricity for space heating, based on CEE's billing analysis methodology. Users of the tool input electricity usage data for a set of customers, then the tool returns the list of customers ranked by a statistical metric quantifying the degree to which electricity use corelates with heating load. The list will help identify those who use electricity for space heating, as they are most likely to appear toward the top of the tool-generated list. The tool's purpose is not to derive unique information but key energy use patterns broadly and more easily than by other means.