Patent ID: 11921478
Assignee: CLEAN POWER RESEARCH, L.L.C.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC F  G | IPC F  G

Claim 0:
1. A system for estimating periodic fuel consumption for cooling of a building with the aid of a digital computer, comprising:
a non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising program code;
a computer interfaced to the storage medium and configured to execute the program code to performs steps to:
find thermal conductivity of a building and effective window area of the building based on empirical testing of the building over a monitored time frame;
record a difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures of the building during the monitored time frame;
define a time span over which to estimate;
retrieve an average occupancy of the building, average internal electricity consumption in the building, average solar resource of the building as applicable to the building over the monitored time frame; and
estimate periodic fuel consumption for cooling over the time span based on the building's thermal conductivity, temperature difference, a number of time periods comprised in the time span, average occupancy, average internal electricity consumption, effective window area, and average solar resource in accordance with an equation:, the
   ⁢
      
   periodic
   ⁢
      
   fuel
   ⁢
      
   consumption
   ⁢
      
   for
   ⁢
      
   cooling
  
  =
  
   
    
     
      UA
      Total
     
     (
     
      
       
        T
        _
       
       Indoor
      
      -
      
       
        T
        _
       
       Outdoor
      
     
     )
    
    ⁢
    
     (
     H
     )
    
   
   -
   
    
     [
     
      
       
        (
        
         C
         1
        
        )
       
       ⁢
       
        P
        _
       
      
      +
      
       
        Electric
        _
       
       (
       
        C
        2
       
       )
      
      +
      
       W
       ⁢
       
        
         Solar
         _
        
        (
        
         C
         2
        
        )
       
      
     
     ]
    
    ⁢
    
     (
     H
     )
    
   
  
 

where UATotal represents the thermal conductivity, TIndoor represents an average of the indoor temperatures, TOutdoor represents an average of the outdoor temperatures, H represents the number of time periods comprised in the time span, C1 represents a conversion factor for occupancy gains, P represents the average occupancy, Electric represents the average internal electricity consumption, C2 represents a power unit conversion factor, W represents the effective window area, and Solar represents the average solar resource as a solar resource produced; and
model a change to the periodic fuel consumption based on a proposed change to an envelope of the building comprising receiving an R value of an existing portion of the envelope, receiving an R-value of a proposed replacement for the existing portion of the envelope, determining a change to the thermal conductivity based on replacing the existing portion with the proposed replacement, and modeling a changed periodic fuel consumption in accordance with the equation using the changed thermal conductivity, wherein the proposed change is implemented based on the modeled changed periodic fuel consumption.