Energy use intensities in London houses

Abstract

This research compares domestic metered energy data, for both gas and electricity consumption, against characteristics drawn from a building stock model of Greater London, UK. The energy analyses are limited to houses (single-building, single household) with one standard electricity meter and one mains gas meter as the principal subset. This provides a sample of almost 1.2 million, or 75%, of London’s stock of houses. Energy use was normalised by calculated floor area, providing an energy use intensity (EUI; kWh/m2/yr), which allows properties of all sizes to be compared. Examination of EUIs of each built form versus Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) current energy efficiency (Asset Rating value) indicates weak, or very weak, correlation between the two, particularly for electricity. Practice relevance The study demonstrates how a detailed building stock model may be used for the analysis of metered energy use in the buildings of urban areas: in this case houses. The analyses examine some aspects of the data that constitute the stock model, such as built form and age, which are held at the scale of what can be considered to be individual buildings. The model currently covers Greater London, but is being built for other urban areas of England and Wales, thus giving it the potential to aid different layers of government or other actors in their efforts to reduce energy use in the building stock—both domestic and non-domestic. Some aspects of the model, such as the calculation of floor areas, should be replicable, where these data are accessible.