In situ evaluation of thermostat setback scenarios for all-electric single-family houses in cold climate

Abstract

For residential customers living in a cold climate, energy savings during the heating season are often achieved through thermostat setbacks. In order to gain insight into this phenomenon, the Laboratoire des Technologies de l’Énergie (LTE) of Hydro-Québec has used its unique twin-houses test bench that consists of two all-electric single-family houses heated by baseboards individually controlled in each room by a line-voltage electronic thermostat. The objective of this paper is to evaluate and analyse three different thermostat setback scenarios of 4°C (night, day and dual setbacks) using in-situ measurements at the LTE twin-houses facility. The results show that at the house level, savings of 10 ± 5.9% were possible for day time and night time setbacks, while being more important for dual setback scenarios. The obtained results also show that the savings and comfort conditions varied greatly from one floor to another.