CH-18-C007 -- Identifying Peak and Base Energy Consumption Hour Ranges for Commercial Buildings Using a Non-Parametric Method

Measured chilled water (CHW), heating hot water (HHW), and electricity (ELE) utility consumption of commercial buildings are of interest to building managers and commissioning engineers for energy savings opportunities. These three types of energy consumption typically depend on outdoor weather conditions, time-of-day, operation, occupancy, and other factors. From the perspective of data-driven modelling, identifying the hours when peak or base consumption occurs is valuable for monitoring building energy consumption and planning central plant distribution for multi-building campuses. The proposed method for identifying peak and base energy consumption is embedded in a non-parametric pairwise statistical comparison test. The test compares all pairs of the hours of day and categorizes the hours at which the building is at a peak or base consumption level in each utility according to measured hourly historic data. Beyond one hour of day which appears to have the highest or lowest average hourly consumption value, the test results provide time periods during which consumption stays at a statistically similar level. This method shows robustness when a building has very short peak hours and very long base hours (highly skewed distribution), and is capable of flagging cases when the hourly consumption level of the building does not significantly vary.