Degree Days – Enviromental Studies
Prediction of Annual Energy and CO2 from Monitoring Data – Friday the 30st October 2015 at 14:00 (10%)
• You have been asked to predict the annual energy consumption and resulting carbon dioxide emissions for a house in East Anglia. You monitor its gas consumption for the month of November 2013 and record that 6176 kWhs of gas has been consumed. Predict and discuss the likely annual energy and carbon dioxide performance of the house by inductive reasoning if the degree days for November were 283. You can find the degree days for the whole year at http://www.degreedays.net The gas conversion factor for CO2 is 0.183 Kg CO2/kWh, while the standing charge is £93.95 with a rate of 4.31 p/kWh. What are the limitations of your chosen method?
• Having obtained the monthly energy consumption and actual degree days for the property as shown in the table below, provide a new estimate for the annual energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions if the annual degree days are 2462. Why might this be a more accurate estimate?
Month Actual Energy consumption (kWh) Degree Days
Sept 2013 1507 83
Oct 2013 3389 111
Nov 2013 6176 283
Dec 2013 7624 301
Jan 2014 7546 306
Feb 2014
5841
263
(300 words maximum) (10 Marks)