Help! My research group is building data-driven tools to recommend an appropriate heat pump for a given house or apartment. If you may be willing to (confidentially, securely) share some of your home energy data with us, could you fill out this short survey? purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... - ThreadSky

kevinjkircher.com • 119 days ago

Help! My research group is building data-driven tools to recommend an appropriate heat pump for a given house or apartment. If you may be willing to (confidentially, securely) share some of your home energy data with us, could you fill out this short survey? https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cwEFdbw3J7WcEf4

Comments

imhelenj.bsky.social•119 days ago

I'm in the UK and have a heat pump already but if my data would be useful let me know 🙂

rifka.bsky.social•119 days ago

then use alt text like disabled people are human too

kevinjkircher.com•119 days ago

Oh no, I forgot alt text! I have the "don't let me post without alt" setting turned on on my phone, but posted this from my laptop and forgot. Thank you for the reminder.

rifka.bsky.social•119 days ago

glad to help 😇🫡

greenfret.bsky.social•118 days ago

Sent my responses. I am an outlier's outlier, so expect not to get picked.

kevinjkircher.com•118 days ago

Thank you!

greenfret.bsky.social•118 days ago

I do have some aggregate data on efficiency of houses in my area, if you want.

lvulis.bsky.social•119 days ago

@volts.wtf come help this team get the data they need!

lvulis.bsky.social•119 days ago

Would it be useful for renters to fill this out? We don't have gas based heating afaik, just a gas water heater, and don't pay for/see the gas bill. Can DM to discuss it's a weird unit.

kevinjkircher.com•119 days ago

No harm in filling out the survey! We'll do an intake screening and get back to you, thanks.

chorongomon.bsky.social•118 days ago

I'm working on getting all my circuits tracked (via home assistant right now) I recently built a ICCF home in central AZ. Love to share the data!

kevinjkircher.com•118 days ago

Nice! We're using Home Assistant for some similar purposes in our test houses. Super handy.

chorongomon.bsky.social•118 days ago

House is all electric so I'm super curious to see exactly how low I can get my usage with some automation and observation

satenikm.bsky.social•118 days ago

done! This is exciting!

kevinjkircher.com•118 days ago

Thank you!

theeflowerchild.bsky.social•112 days ago

Cool, I will fill it out! A heat pump is the last thing we have left to do to electrify our home, but they’re so expensive. Here’s what we spent just on a HPWH: https://flowerchild.substack.com/p/a-shower-powered-by-the-sun

kevinjkircher.com•112 days ago

Nice write-up, thanks! Love your idea of scheduling preheat to run on solar or when the room's vacant. $7k hardware cost at the top line of your budget is wild to me as Rheem 65 gal HPWH hardware costs about $2k, but this could be a brand or Cali thing.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rheem-Performance-Platinum-65-Gal-10-Year-Hybrid-High-Efficiency-Smart-Tank-Electric-Heat-Pump-Water-Heater-XE65T10H45U0/312741511?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&srsltid=AfmBOopvlxHq6p-RMKLDWlaAOMlNXrue_hS8n1CElt1l3VGst4hqJzoip8M

theeflowerchild.bsky.social•112 days ago

Everything is more expensive here! We got another quote for $1K more. As for those ideas, I can't claim the credit. ;-) Thanks for reading!

christaggart.bsky.social•119 days ago

We’ve done this pretty accurately so far using gas usage history (bill or green button data) and backing out hot water demand (which is typically negligible within our dataset)

jlev.online•116 days ago

We do something similar at Elephant Energy. Require that the homeowner has a years worth of gas bills available. Would LOVE open code or models for sizing appropriately given building characteristics.

Have a manual-J lite process for estimating running cost, but sizing is still an art not science.

christaggart.bsky.social•116 days ago

NRCAN has some modelling based on home archetypes, but in practice they’re only good for broad modelling comparisons and not great for sizing. They still tend to oversize imo.

https://natural-resources.canada.ca/energy-efficiency/homes/local-energy-efficiency-partnerships-leep/leep-technology-guides/leep-technology-guides/26227

kevinjkircher.com•119 days ago

Ya! We're combining that approach with thermostat timing where possible

christaggart.bsky.social•118 days ago

Nice! We did that too. The deprecation of the ecobee api made that a bit less attractive.

kevinjkircher.com•118 days ago

Yeah. We're likely shifting to Sensi

rcthayer.bsky.social•117 days ago

Echoing a previous reply: I hope you can expand to include renters. A lot of rental housing in high demand markets have been poorly maintained, renters can't improve them themselves, making these the actual biggest climate housing vulnerability. E.g. my apartment has effectively no heat source

rcthayer.bsky.social•117 days ago

It's common that renters in my area-- more than half the population of my city-- are reliant on portable space heaters and portable types of single room ACs.

kevinjkircher.com•117 days ago

We're hoping renters will participate in this study too! The methods we're working on apply as well to apartments as to houses.

rcthayer.bsky.social•117 days ago

Thanks! I had opened the form but couldn't fill it out because I don't have a thermostat, heater with a label to share, or gas use history. I was just hoping to flag that there will be a big chunk of housing like mine that won't be in the dataset

rcthayer.bsky.social•117 days ago

Thanks for your work! I hope I get to use a heat pump soon

kevinjkircher.com•117 days ago

That makes sense, thanks for flagging these issues!

johnsmillie42.bsky.social•112 days ago

Oof i'd totally do this if we weren't on Sabbatical this year.

kevinjkircher.com•112 days ago

appreciate the thought anyway. hope the road trip was epic and sabbatical times are off to s good start!

johnsmillie42.bsky.social•112 days ago

It was, thanks!

itsahaulout.bsky.social•119 days ago

I was curious/interested until I saw AI. Nope.

frankreif.bsky.social•118 days ago

Here in the UK, industry influencers are competing on https://openenergymonitor.org/

It's pretty handy to verify performance, improve maintenance and diagnostics, and get new clients on board.

An equivalent scheme in the US would be a good idea.

kevinjkircher.com•119 days ago

Some background: 🧵

What's a heat pump? An efficient electric heating and cooling machine.

Why heat pumps? They reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution in most settings. They reduce energy bills in some settings: new build; retrofit vs. propane, heating oil, electric baseboard, or gas+AC.

kevinjkircher.com•119 days ago

Why's it hard to pick the right heat pump? Building owners mostly interact on heat pumps with HVAC installers, who have skewed incentives to recommend units they already have on the shelves, or oversized units that cost more (so generate more profit) and are less likely to trigger call-backs.

kevinjkircher.com•119 days ago

Why's it important to pick the right heat pump? A heat pump's performance in the field depends on how well it's sized for the heating and cooling demands it will see. An oversized heat pump might use more electricity (and cost more $) than it should, or might not dehumidify well in summer.

kevinjkircher.com•119 days ago

What's our plan? To build software that takes in the real energy bills or smart thermostat data from the housing unit where the heat pump will be installed, computes statistical estimates of worst-case heating and cooling demand, then recommends an appropriately sized heat pump to meet demand.

kevinjkircher.com•119 days ago

What are we asking for? It depends on what equipment you have and what information you're willing to share. From most people, we will ask for a year's worth of energy bills and/or data from your smart thermostat if you have one. We may ask to conduct a free energy audit of your home.

kevinjkircher.com•119 days ago

What will we do with the data? We'll use it to refine and validate our methods for estimating peak heating and cooling loads. We may also use it to assess shortcomings of existing sizing methods and showcase the need for innovation. We won't sell it or share it with anyone without your permission.

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