Documentation of Calculation Methodology, Input Data, and Infrastructure for the Home Energy Saver Web Site

The Home Energy Saver (HES) is an interactive web site designed to help residential consumers make decisions about energy use in their homes. This report describes the underlying methods and data for estimating energy consumption. Using engineering models, the site estimates energy consumption for six major categories (end uses); heating, cooling, water heating, major appliances, lighting, and miscellaneous equipment. The approach taken by the Home Energy Saver is to provide users with initial results based on a minimum of user input, allowing progressively greater control in specifying the characteristics of the house and energy consuming appliances. Outputs include energy consumption (by fuel and end use), energy-related emissions (carbon dioxide), energy bills (total and by fuel and end use), and energy saving recommendations. Real-world electricity tariffs are used for many locations, making the bill estimates even more accurate. Where information about the house is not available from the user, default values are used based on end-use surveys and engineering studies. An extensive body of qualitative decision-support information augments the analytical results.