Abstract
Weather normalization is essential when conducting building energy benchmarking or comparing the energy consumption of similar buildings in different climate regions. Degree-days, which is derived from outdoor air temperature, has conventionally been used as an index to represent the weather condition in normalization. However, both air temperature and humidity affect the energy demand of a building cooling system. Existing literature considered the impact of separate weather parameters such as solar radiation and wind speed on weather normalization. This paper aims to investigate if Specific Enthalpy of Humid Air, which is a function of both outdoor air dry-bulb temperature and moisture content, can be used as an integrated indicator of weather condition in place of cooling degree-days to normalize long-term cooling energy consumption more accurately. Cooling Enthalpy Hour, which is calculated at each hour of weather conditions above a reference enthalpy value, is proposed to be the indicator. To test this hypothesis, simulated hourly energy consumption data was normalized using both Cooling Degree Hour and the proposed Cooling Enthalpy Hour as representation of weather variation. Preliminary results showed that the proposed method derived more consistent energy consumption irrespective of weather variation. This demonstrates that Cooling Degree Hour is not highly representative of the varying weather condition that should be normalized from the data.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A Guide to HVAC Building Services Calculations [Internet] (2007) The Building Services Research and Information Association, [cited 2021 Mar 22]. Available from: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjkr_CH6sTvAhUDGFkFHfXNBVAQFjAAegQIBBAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bsria.com%2Fdoc%2FBoXP4r&usg=AOvVaw0wxUBcha9uN1LVCUqWfAdB
Akander J, Alvarez S, Johannesson G, Santamouris M (2005) Energy performance of residential buildings: a practical guide for energy rating and efficiency [internet], 1st edn. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Available from: https://www.routledge.com/Energy-Performance-of-Residential-Buildings-A-Practical-Guide-for-Energy/Santamouris/p/book/9781138968806
ASHRAE. ASHRAE Guideline 14-2002 (2002) Measurement of energy and demand savings [internet]. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Atlanta, GA. Available from: https://kupdf.net/download/ashrae-guideline-14-2002-measurement-of-energy-and-demand-saving_59a431dfdc0d605a13568edc_pdf
Climate Atlas of Canada [Internet] (2021) Prairie Climate Centre, [cited 2021 Mar 22]. Available from: https://climateatlas.ca/map/canada/hdd_2060_85#z=5&lat=79.96&lng=-112.15
Beheshti S, Sahebalam A, Nidoy E (2019) Structure dependent weather normalization. Energy Sci Eng 338–353
Cox M, Brown MA, Sun X (2013) Energy benchmarking of commercial buildings: a low-cost pathway toward urban sustainability. Environ Res Lett 8(3)
D’Amico A, Ciulla G, Panno D, Ferrari S (2019) Building energy demand assessment through heating degree days: the importance of a climatic dataset. Appl Energy [Internet] 242(February):1285–1306. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.03.167
Energy & Water Reporting and Benchmarking—Large Buildings Share [internet] (2021) City of Toronto, [cited 2021 Mar 22]. Available from: https://www.toronto.ca/business-economy/business-operation-growth/green-your-business/energy-and-water-reporting-and-benchmarking/
Eto JH, Ca USA (1988) On using degree-days to account for the effects of weather on annual energy use in office buildings. Energy Build [Internet] 12:113–127. Available from: https://buildings.lbl.gov/sites/all/files/energy-bldgs-degree-days.pdf
Fels MF (1986) PRISM : an introduction. Energy Build 9:5–18
Ghajarkhosravi M, Huang Y, Fung AS, Kumar R, Straka V (2020) Energy benchmarking analysis of multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs ) in Toronto, Canada. J Build Eng [Internet] 27. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.100981
Hsu D, Kontokosta C (2012) New York city local law 84 Benchmarking report [internet]. The City of New York (plaNYC), [cited 2021 Mar 22]. Available from: http://www.nyc.gov/html/gbee/downloads/pdf/nyc_ll84_benchmarking_report_2012.pdf
Kissock JK, Haberl JS, Claridge DE (2003) Inverse modeling toolkit : numerical algorithms. ASHRAE Trans 109, SciTech Prem Collect
Kissock K (1995) University of Dayton-Environmental Protection Agency average daily temperature archive [Internet]. University of Dayton, [cited 2021 Mar 22]. Available from: https://academic.udayton.edu/kissock/http/Weather/
Kontokosta CE, Reina VJ, Bonczak B (2020) Energy cost burdens for low-income and minority households. J Am Plan Assoc [Internet] 86(1):89–105. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2019.1647446
Li Y, Wang W, Wang Y, **n Y, He T, Zhao G (2021) A review of studies involving the effects of climate change on the energy consumption for building heating and cooling. Int J Environ Res Public Health 18(1):1–18
Markus TA (1982) Development of a cold climate severity index. Energy Build [Internet] 4:277–283. Available from: https://journals-scholarsportal-info.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/pdf/03787788/v04i0004/277_doaccsi.xml
Moazami A, Carlucci S, Nik VM, Geving S (2019) Towards climate robust buildings: an innovative method for designing buildings with robust energy performance under climate change. Energy Build [Internet] 202:109378. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.109378
Nicholls C (2018) Improving building’s energy performance: the UK government’s tools and policies to address the challenges [internet]. The UK Government Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, [cited 2021 Mar 22]. Available from: https://energyepidemiology.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nicholls-improving-buildings-energy-performance-uk-tools-and-policies.pdf
O.Reg. 506/18: Reporting of energy consumption and water use [internet] (2012) Province of Ontario, [cited 2021 Mar 22]. Available from: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/R18506
Siu CY, Liao Z (2020) Method for converting CWEEDs weather files to EPW format for multiyear simulation of building thermal dynamics. MethodsX [Internet]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2020.101016
Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) using statsmodels [internet] (2022) [cited 2022 Apr 2]. Available from: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/ordinary-least-squares-ols-using-statsmodels/
Tam C, Liao Z, Poh PSH (2021) An enhanced weather normalization method for identifying changes in the building condition. J Build Eng [Internet] 102354. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352710221002102
Energy Star Portfolio Manager Technical Reference: Climate and Weather [Internet] (2021) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, [cited 2021 Mar 22]. Available from: https://portfoliomanager.energystar.gov/pdf/reference/ClimateandWeather.pdf
U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Building Technologies Office (2013) Commercial Prototype Building Models [Internet]. Building Energy Codes Program, [cited 2020 Jul 7]. Available from: https://www.energycodes.gov/development/commercial/prototype_models
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Tam, C., Liao, Z. (2023). Weather Normalization of Building Cooling Energy Consumption Using Specific Enthalpy. In: Wang, L.L., et al. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Building Energy and Environment. COBEE 2022. Environmental Science and Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9822-5_317
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9822-5_317
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-19-9821-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-19-9822-5
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)