Abstract

This paper is a part of a project geared towards the analysis of multi-configuration household behaviour and determining the presence or absence of causal and statistical relationships within a code level 5 Eco-homes in Lincolnshire, UK. The research methodology follows a mixed method bottom-up approach to detail and extrapolate energy consumption within households. That is achieved using room-by-room occupancy and, activity logs, questionnaires that use both quantitative scales and extraction of qualitative information, data loggers and the use of an experimental footfall study. The research utilizes the aforementioned methods through the digitization of data into manageable cross-compatible units, the extrapolation of energy and occupancy trends from self-observation tools. The study uses Excel to initially catalogue the raw data provided and created the functional relationships used to automate and manipulate the data sets to generate the energy/occupancy-time relationships to cover time-steps and different periods of use. In addition, the research is using a well-established high resolution behaviour modelling tool created by CREST, Loughborough as a validation benchmark for the extrapolated data as well as a tool to visually and contextually determine the gap in knowledge being addressed in the study. This phase of the research concludes by determining the validity of the data extrapolation methodology and its use as a low-cost framework to bypass the difficulty of studying houses not fitted with often-expensive smart metering systems.