Splitting measurements of the total heat demand in a hotel into domestic hot water and space heating heat use

Abstract

To achieve more efficient energy use in buildings, space heating (SH) and domestic hot water (DHW) heat use should be analysed separately. Unfortunately, in many buildings, the heat meters measure the total heat use only, typically not divided into SH and DHW. This article presented a method for splitting the total heat use into the SH and the DHW. The splitting follows the assumption that the outdoor temperature is the main parameter explaining the hourly SH heat use, while the hourly DHW heat use is not influenced by this parameter. In the article, the modelled SH heat use was extracted from the total heat use based on the energy signature curve and the singular spectrum analysis. Thereafter, from the residuals between the modelled SH heat use and the total heat use, the DHW heat use was identified. The application of the method for the hotel in Norway showed that restored values represented the trends of the measured SH and DHW heat use well. The coefficient of determination (R2) for the modelled SH heat use was 0.97, and 0.76 for DHW. The methodology is useful for obtaining valuable information for monitoring and improving the energy performance of SH and DHW systems.