Metered end-use consumption and load shapes from the ELCAP residential sample of existing homes in the Pacific Northwest

Abstract

Hourly end-use data have been collected from 454 residences and 140 commercial buildings in the Pacific Northwest. The data presented here provide an overview of electricity consumption patterns for 288 homes in the End-Use Load and Consumer Assessment Program (ELCAP) Residential Base Study. The Base Study is a sample of 454 regional single-family, owner-occupied, electrically space-heated houses. Metered residential electrical end-use loads collected as part of the ELCAP are summarized. The ELCAP was conducted by Pacific Northwest Laboratory for the Bonneville Power Administration. This paper addresses a number of load research questions: • What are the mean annual loads for specific end uses? • How much do end-use loads vary across residences? • Are load shares less variable across residences than end-use loads? • How do end-use loads vary with respect to common demographic variables, such as income level or number of occupants? • To what degree do end-use loads vary by time of year? • What are average hourly end-use load shapes? • What are the estimates of average annual end-use loads and load shares for the residential sector after applying assumed appliance and fuel saturation rates to the metered loads? Descriptions are presented of the metered hourly end-use loads aggregated across time and across time and across the sample of homes. Observations are made regarding common assertions about energy consumption patterns, but models or detailed statistical analyses of these loads are not included because they are the subject of other current and pending analyses.