Residential buildings consume about a third of the
UKs total energy and the need to reduce this as part
of achieving the 2050 CO2 emissions targets driving
the interest the modelling and performance simulation
of homes. While simulation and modelling tools are
in wide spread use, the detailed empirical data with
which to understand the effect of systems and operational
complexities of households on the consumption
of energy is less developed than it is for commercial
buildings. This paper reports some early results from
a whole house monitoring trial in the UK where high
resolution measurements of gas, hot water and power
are being used to disaggregate heat use. The study has
shown that: equipment used for domestic heat generation
varies considerably between households; gas
demand is highly variable at the sub-hourly level, far
greater than some of the available hourly monitored
data would suggest; and that the current information
on hot water consumption characteristics is poor and
so some new, more comprehensive data is presented