How the data will be used
Posted December 6th, 2007 by John_vdL
- All billing days will be normalized to a 28-day billing period (to compare equal-length
months).
- All monthly consumption estimates will be normalized to the baseline 3-year
average of the number of students on your campus. This is not to compare perstudent
energy intensity, but to adjust for any sudden changes in the size of the
student body. We do not adjust for area of campus buildings because this entails
additional energy waste unless also accompanied by a comparable rise in student
enrollment.
- Heating, but not electricity, will be normalized to the baseline 3-year average of
the heating degree days (HDDs) in your region to compare equal-intensity winters.
- Percent reductions between the three-year baseline and '08 consumption will be
determined by dividing the normalized '08 data by the normalized baseline data.
Energy savings for your college (not used in the competition, but reported) will be
calculated by subtracting the '08 consumption from the normalized baseline.
- For the combined heat-electricity awards, heating BTU will be converted as if that
amount of natural gas was burned to produce of electricity, instead of using the
amount of BTU a kWh of electricity produces, which ignores substantial
production inefficiency. Converting BTU to kWh requires the heat rate, which
depends on the type of power plant used. We use the conventional gas plant
estimate provided by the US Department of Energy, which is 10,807 BTU / kWh
(http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/assumption/pdf/electricity.pdf#page=3) .
Because we want to convert BTU to kWh, we use the inverse 1 kWh / 10,807 BTU
for the conversion factor = 0.0000925326 kWh / BTU. Though not needed for the
competition, since a kWh in direct energy =3413 BTU, the assumed efficiency
rate of electrical conversion is 3413 BTU / 10,807 BTU = 0.315813824 = 31.58%.
