Forecasting household energy consumption based on lifestyle data using hybrid machine learning

Abstract

Household lifestyle play a significant role in appliance consumption. The overall effects are that, it can be a determining factor in the healthy functioning of the household appliance or its abnormal functioning. The rapid growth in residential consumption has raised serious concerns toward limited energy resource and high electricity pricing. The propose 134% electricity tariffs adjustment by Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) at the heat of economic hardships caused by Covid-19 has raised serious public agitation in Ghana (west Africa) . The unpredictable lifestyle of residential consumers in an attempt to attain a comfortable lifestyle and the rippling effects of population growth burdens energy demand at the residential sector. This study attempts to identify the lifestyle factors that have great influence on household energy consumption and predict future consumption of the household with mitigating factors to cushion the effects on high consumption. The study is based on lifestyle data using hybrid machine learning. The hybrid model achieved high accuracy (96%) as compared to previous models. The hybrid model performance was evaluated using mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), root mean square error (RMSE) and correlation coefficient (R) metrics.