Weatherization program short-term evaluation methods.

Procedures were developed and tested to conduct a quick and reliable evaluation of weatherization program energy savings using heating system nm-time loggers. This project performed: (1) a statistical analysis to determine the measurements and assessment constraints on short-term nm-time monitoring, and (2) a field test of the data collection procedures with three weatherization providers. The primary purpose of the short-term performance assessment was to provide an enhancement to the State of Minnesota M200 weatherization process through the development of a timely and consistent system of feedback and accountability. The streamlined process developed for this purpose can be applied to any government or utility funded weatherization program where the goal is accurate savings estimates produced in a short time period.

In developing a procedure to determine the cost-effectiveness of the installed energy saving measures, two approaches can be employed: (1) comparing usage from a group of treated houses with the usage from a set of untreated control houses measured over the same period, or (2) measuring pre- and post-weatherization usage for individual houses and calculating the weather-corrected energy savings. For this project, Monte Carlo simulation statistical studies established the level of uncertainty in projected energy savings for the two approaches. Considerations such as sample size, length of monitoring period, and time of year were examined for each approach. Software has been developed to streamline field data collection and analysis. Preliminary results have been obtained from three weatherization providers installing improvements during the 1994/1995 and 1995/1996 heating season.