Constructing load profiles for household electricity and hot water from time-use data-Modelling approach and validation

Abstract

Time-use data, describing in detail the everyday life of household members as high-resolved activity sequences, have a largely unrealized potential of contributing to domestic energy demand modelling. A model for computation of daily electricity and hot-water demand profiles from time-use data was developed, using simple conversion schemes, mean appliance and water-tap data and general daylight availability distributions. Validation against detailed, end-use specific electricity measurements in a small sample of households reveals that the model for household electricity reproduces hourly load patterns with preservation of important qualitative features. The output from the model, when applied to a large data set of time use in Sweden, also shows correspondence to aggregate profiles for both household electricity and hot water from recent Swedish measurement surveys. Deviations on individual household level are predominantly due to occasionally ill-reported time-use data and on aggregate population level due to slightly non-representative samples. Future uses and developments are identified and it is suggested that modelling energy use from time-use data could be an alternative, or a complement, to energy demand measurements in households. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.