Estimating residential hot water consumption from smart electricity meter data

Despite the fact that residential water heating is among the most energy-intensive aspects of the water sector, domestic hot water use is often poorly quantified. However, water-related energy savings in the residential sector are possible from the implementation of energy-efficient water heaters. Estimating hot water consumption from smart electricity meter data can help advance the body of knowledge regarding the urban energy-water nexus by employing data to validate and verify other published findings, and subsequently promote community resilience through energy and water resources efficiency. Using a non-intrusive load monitoring algorithm, this study disaggregated electricity for water heating from half-hourly ZIP code level smart electricity meter data for areas in the city of Chicago and estimated residential hot water consumption with quantified uncertainty. Results indicate that water heating accounted for 7-20\% of total electricity consumption in the analyzed single-family residential homes, representing an average of 1-8 kWh of electricity consumption per day and 7-55 gallons of hot water per day. These results also demonstrated significant spatial variability, such that some areas of Chicago show higher per household hot water use. Considering the challenges of designing, building, and deploying advanced metering infrastructure to monitor household water consumption and the fact that many residential customers have non-metered water accounts, using isolated water heating signals to develop a first-order estimate of domestic hot water use for single-family households represents a valuable quantification of an energy-intense flow. The quantification of residential electricity used for water heating and domestic hot water use could help derive insights for effective policy making and energy efficiency programming to improve community resilience through enabling higher quality of life and highlighting areas with energy affordability concerns. Understanding the urban energy-water nexus is critical to developing effective residential energy efficiency measures and promoting urban sustainability.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Civil Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• Bongungu, Joseph Loend A-Namba

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stillwell, Ashlynn A.

• energy-water nexus
• energy disaggregation
• water heating energy use
• advanced metering
• residential electricity consumption
• sustainability

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2020 Joseph Bongungu Loend'a - Namba

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108042

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108042